An open letter to the United States Congress

by Jessica W Tsai, MD, PhD, Joseph B Keller, PhD, and Fanuel Muindi, PhD

Dear Congress,

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]e thank you for your demonstration of commitment to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with the recent announcement of an additional $2 billion allocation from now until the end of the fiscal year. President Trump’s recent proposal to cut the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget by nearly 6 billion dollars, or 18%, implies a myopic, naive, and careless attitude toward the millions of Americans affected by illness. Let us consider the effects of such a cut across a variety of groups. What about young scientists who are trying to obtain new grants to become independent investigators as they push the boundaries of technology and discovery? What about the many graduate and post-doctoral trainees who are supported by NIH training grants? What about the many patients who need continued NIH-funded research to find cures for devastating diseases? What about the young people, especially women and minorities, who will be the future scientists and engineers of our country? What message does this convey to the rest of the world with regards to our leadership in scientific research?

 References

 [1]  Mission and Goals. https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/what-we-do/mission-goals (accessed April 9, 2017). 

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