May 23, 2017
United for Medical Research Statement on the President’s FY18 Budget Request
The following statement can be attributed to UMR President Lizbet Boroughs:
“The drastic cuts in the Administration’s 2018 budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are a significant blow to medical research and the patients who depend on it. Simply put, less funding for NIH means fewer Americans leading healthy, productive lives.
“These cuts also will slow an engine for U.S. economic growth. NIH-funded research, conducted at academic and medical institutions in communities in every state, directly and indirectly supported almost 380,000 jobs and $65 billion in economic activity across the United States in 2016 alone. The cuts to NIH research that would occur under the Administration’s budget would have a corresponding negative impact on jobs and the economy. An analysis done by UMR using the cuts to NIH proposed in the earlier “Skinny Budget” found that there could be a loss of nearly 90,000 jobs and $15 billion in economic activity compared to 2016.
“We are grateful that the NIH and medical research have such strong bipartisan support in Congress. UMR members stand ready to work with Congress to reject these devastating cuts and to ensure that the NIH continues on a path of steady, sustained and predictable funding.”
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United for Medical Research is a coalition of leading research scientific research institutions and industries, and patient and health advocates that have joined together to seek steady increases in funding for the National Institutes of Health. Learn more at www.unitedformedicalresearch.com. For examples of the amazing things that NIH research is making possible, visitwww.amazingthingspodcast.com.