Senator Murray on Trump’s Latest Plan to Politicize Lifesaving NIH Research

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on President Trump's latest reported plans to issue an executive order to establish an external review committee empowered to veto any awards selected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to receive funding.

"Whether lifesaving medical research gets funded or not should be determined by experts at the NIH-not a panel of lackeys chosen by Donald Trump and Russ Vought. Under this scheme, a single political appointee could kill a cancer study or an Alzheimer's trial with no scientific reason at all.

"Only one question should decide which research gets funded: is this good science that could save lives? Trump wants to answer a different question: does this help me settle a score? NIH funding doesn't belong to Donald Trump-it belongs to the patients and families waiting on the next medical breakthrough.

"President Trump will stop at nothing to defund medical research that fundamentally changes the lives of patients and families across the country, and Republicans need to join us to put a stop to any effort by this administration to politicize what groundbreaking new treatments and cures we decide as a country to invest in-whether that's an OMB rule or a new executive order.

"Breast cancer patients shouldn't be denied hope of a new lifesaving treatment because Russ Vought thinks women's health research is woke. Researchers at UW, Fred Hutch, and labs across Washington state and the country are working on cures that families are counting on; I'm going to fight this corrupt heist every step of the way."

Senator Murray has raised alarms and fought back against this administration's nonstop efforts to politicize, cut, and defund all manner of lifesaving medical research. She and her Democratic colleagues in Congress also successfully fought to secure language in the recently enacted continuing resolution (CR) to block the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) attempt to politicize every aspect of the federal grantmaking process.

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