A bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee last year contains dire cuts to funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—a 6.2% cut to the Fiscal Year 2024 NIH budget. Included in the 6.2% cut are a 2.6% reduction to the budget for the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), a 2.9% cut to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and a 22.9% cut to the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
In the Senate Appropriations Committee bill, the NIH budget is increased by 2.4%. The National Institute of Arthritis & Musculoskeletal & Skin Diseases (NIAMS) and NIAID budgets are funded at the same amounts as last year and NCI sees a 0.9% budget increase.
Congress is taking up the conversation of funding again this week, and the ACR continues to urge the House to revise their language and the Senate not to allow these cuts to go through.
The unacceptable cuts to the NIH proposed by the House majority are in stark contrast to recent budgets from the majority party, under which the NIH has seen increased funding. As the House majority has struggled to find its footing this Congress, the campaign promise to “cut government spending” has loomed large. However, after pledging not to cut a long list of expensive items, healthcare has become the target to execute this intention.
The ACR will continue to work with our partners in Congress to adequately fund these important NIH programs. You can help by contacting your lawmakers to share the impact of this proposed loss of funding on patient care.
