Democrats, a grill, commander of the National Institutes of No. Discounts: Who calls the shots?
When the Trump administration has passed on the country’s medical research financing device in recent months, scientists and officials of the National Health Institutes of Health have often wondered.
After all, the Ministry of Governmental efficiency helped the Elon Musk project to reduce costs, to pay decisions to cancel or delay research grants. Other projects have been a victim to confront President Trump with universities to anti -Semitism. However, while giving an opportunity before the Senate Committee on Tuesday to dispel doubts about who involves the influence of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Bhaterea did little to demand ownership, perhaps the most rocky period in many research institutions in the agency.
Dr. Bhatersia said the Senate Credit Committee, that the decisions of freezing the scholarship payments to Northwestern University “happened before you face my position.”
He repeatedly said that a proposal to reduce the budget of the National Institutes of Health by $ 18 billion – approximately 40 percent – was “cooperation between Congress and management” and refused to speak in detail about how the discounts affecting the agency.
And pressing an attempt to reduce funding for universities for the expenses of the general expenditures of research-a step to reduce costs is baked in the budget proposal for the year 2026 for the administration-Dr. Bhatersia said: “I do not want to enter into that,” noting the continuous litigation.
Many Democrats in the committee said they were confused about those who were withdrawing the strings in the agency.
“I want to know, who blocks this financing?” Senator Tami Baldwin called on Wisconsin, a democratic, citing the evidence that the national health institutes have distributed billions of dollars less in granting this year from the same period last year. “Are you? Is it Do”? Is it Omb? ” She added, referring to the administration and budget office. “Who make these decisions?”
“There is a set of decisions, I think, which led to some of these grants.” He said, for example, that he was his call to stay away from what he called “politicized science”, a term that he used in the past to describe research related to diversity and stock issues. But he said that the restrictions imposed on financing research in Harvard and other leading institutions were “shared with the administration.”
The reaction of Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois, another democratic, was sharply after Dr. Bhatershaya denied responsibility for the freezing research payments to the administration to the northwest.
An email from an official from the National Institutes of Health in mid -April, weeks after Dr. Bhatershara confirmed that the employees did not issue grant awards to the northwest and many other universities and not to inform the institutions why their financing was frozen.
“Pak stops in your office,” Mr. Durbin told Dr. Bhatershara. “Don’t blame someone else.”
The Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the agency’s spending next year have sparked criticism from Senators from both sides, including Senator Susan Collins from Maine, a Republican.
Dr. Bhatersia said the proposed reduction was “very annoying.” “It would delay or stop effective treatments and treatments from developing diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancer and type 1 diabetes.” She said that the plans were at risk of “cutting China.”
Dr. Bahtasharia said that the national health institutes were committed to searching for Alzheimer’s and other diseases and that he will work with legislators to treat “health needs for all Americans.”
The manager opened the door to an agreement between the Trump administration and the leading universities that would exploit the financing of medical research, although it has not provided any details about the possibilities of such an agreement or what it takes to reach one. “I hope a decision will be made with universities that have been suspended,” he said.
In recent months, the National Institutes of Health have finished more than 1,300 grants and the delay in financing for more than 1,000 other projects. On Monday, dozens of national health institutes employees signed their names on a letter saying that these procedures have been implemented on the basis of ideological preferences and without employee inputs, and controlling effective research on issues such as health variations, health effects of climate change and sexual health.
Dr. Bhatershaya said on Tuesday that he had established an operation for scientists to resume financing discounts. He said that the agency will appeal within weeks.