ACS supports robust NIH funding in Fiscal Year 2022

July 1, 2021

The Honorable Patty Murray
Chair, Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
S-128 The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Rosa L. DeLauro
Chair, Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
H-307 The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Roy Blunt
Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Labor, Human Services, Education and Related Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
S-128 The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Tom Cole
Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Labor, Human Services, Education and Related Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
1036 LHOB
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairwoman Murray, Ranking Member Blunt, Chairwoman DeLauro, and Ranking Member Cole:

The American Chemical Society (ACS) urges you to support robust funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill for FY2022. The work of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) is vital to advancing medical research and promoting the health of the American people, but remains unfamiliar to many Americans compared to disease-specific centers and institutes.

Through its research grants and fellowship programs, NIH also plays an integral role in attracting and training the young scientists and engineers who will help the United States remain a leader in medical research and technology. Investing in the NIH now ensures a future of well-trained scientists and continued medical advances to combat diseases and public health crises.

As an organization of over 155,000 chemical scientists and engineers, ACS understands the benefits of sustained, predictable funding for NIH to the research community. For example: NIGMS, which has supported more than 50 Nobel laureates, funds high-quality, non-disease-specific basic research, laying the scientific foundation for an array of advances in disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment used by other institutes. NIGMS funds the MIDAS (Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study) Coordination Center, which coordinates and facilitates infections disease modeling research. The MIDAS collaboration brings together more than 300 scientists conduct research on computational modeling to improve the detection, control, and prevention of emerging infectious diseases.  In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the coordinating center created a central online repository for the scientific community—a clearinghouse for sharing data and data-driven discoveries about COVID-19 to enable an extraordinary international collection of data and information regarding the outbreak.

NIBIB supports basic research and training through investigator-initiated grants, contracts, program project and center grants, and career development and training awards. The Institute also specializes in the development and application of cutting-edge technologies based upon engineering, mathematics, and the physical sciences for the solution of challenges intersecting biology and medicine such as the NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) Initiative for COVID-19, which has developed and scaled up testing for COVID-19.

NCATS focuses on ensuring that groundbreaking research from universities reaches the people who need it by streamlining the pipeline from basic research to applied research to medicines and techniques used in medicine. Furthermore, it is a partner in the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C), an effort to pool COVID-19 clinical data to answer research questions and address the pandemic. NIGMS, NIBIB, and NCATS all contribute to the vibrant health and medical research community in the United States, and to the critical mission of NIH as a whole.

As the subcommittee completes its important work, please ensure robust support for all of the institutes of the NIH, and its mission of improving the health of the citizens of the United States. While recent events have highlighted the important work of institutes focused directly on infectious illnesses, scientific advancement in all facets of biomedical research depend on steady funding. Should you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me or Will Hartwig (W_Hartwig@acs.org).

Sincerely,

Anthony Pitagno

CC:
The Honorable Patrick Leahy
The Honorable Richard Shelby
The Honorable Rosa L DeLauro
The Honorable Kay Granger