(The Center Square) \u2013 Arguing that the U.S. is \u201cunderinvesting in discovery,\u201d U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., is calling for changes to the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, which include increased investments from the federal government.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than cut NIH by nearly 40 percent<\/a>, as the Office of Management and Budget proposed last year, we should double its $48 billion<\/a> budget within five years,\u201d McCormick wrote in a Washington Post op-ed<\/a> published on Wednesday. \u201cThese are big numbers, but if they yield discoveries that trim the nation\u2019s $5.3 trillion<\/a> health bill by just 1 percent, they will more than pay for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n McCormick is an ally of President Donald Trump but has on multiple occasions criticized federal proposals to cut NIH funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n During a visit to Penn Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in late March, alongside NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, he touted the agency’s impact on the Keystone State<\/a> and again called for increased support.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s a huge benefit to Pennsylvania and benefit to the country that Pennsylvania is a big recipient of NIH funding,\u201d McCormick said during that visit.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the senator\u2019s office in late March, Pennsylvania is the fourth largest recipient of NIH funding in the nation, with the state receiving $2.27 billion in federal research funding in FY2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNationally, every NIH dollar also generates roughly $2.50<\/a> in economic activity,\u201d McCormick wrote in Wednesday\u2019s op-ed. \u201cIn Pennsylvania, NIH research sustains<\/a> over 21,000 jobs and generates an impact of more than $5 billion annually, and AI will accelerate breakthroughs.\u201d<\/p>\n The federal government spends $7 trillion a year<\/a>, McCormick notes, while adding that less than 1%<\/a> goes to NIH research.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat sliver delivers outsize returns,\u201d McCormick wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n McCormick cites the institute\u2019s work on cutting Type 2 diabetes risk<\/a>, eye disease research that saves health care costs<\/a>, reducing legal blindness<\/a>, and CAR-T cell therapy<\/a>, pioneered at Penn, which reengineers patients\u2019 T cells to attack cancer, producing decade-long remissions and replacing years of costly treatments.<\/p>\n He also believes that America\u2019s global leadership in this space is \u201cslipping,\u201d noting that China has boosted research<\/a> and development spending from 36% of the U.S. level in 2008 to parity in 2024. Beijing, McCormick wrote, now accounts for about one-third<\/a> of the world\u2019s clinical-stage drugs.<\/p>\n \u201cFederal R&D fell from 1.86 percent of gross domestic product in 1964 to 0.63 percent in 2024,\u201d McCormick wrote. \u201cSince 2003, the NIH budget has shrunk by more than 10%<\/a>, adjusted for inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have also let politics intrude on science. The NIH under the Biden administration gave CHOP $155,000<\/a> to develop training on \u201cstructural racism\u201d and \u201cintersectional microaggressions.\u201d Such initiatives abused taxpayer money and undermined trust,\u201d he continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although McCormick is calling for increased NIH funding, he also lauded the White House for calling for a \u201cnew golden age of American science<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cConservatives should recognize that basic research, like national security, is a public good that private capital rarely funds,\u201d McCormick wrote. \u201cBusinesses excel at turning discoveries into products and jobs, but foundational science pays off too slowly and uncertainly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGovernment fills the gap, funding the long-term, high-risk work that businesses turn into breakthroughs with stunning payoffs for society,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The second proposal McCormick cites in his op-ed is the need to \u201cprioritize merit-based science.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump administration rightly reassessed grants lacking merit, and it canceled nearly 1,400<\/a> midstream, many over diversity, equity and inclusion language,\u201d McCormick wrote. \u201cWhile some of these grants deserved to be canceled, some were legitimate research with buzzwords inserted to get approval from the Biden administration.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor half those grants alone, taxpayers had already paid nearly $1.3 billion<\/a> for work that might never be finished,\u201d he continued. \u201cRather than waste that investment, we should let researchers revise their applications and keep working. That is why I led five Senate Republican colleagues<\/a> in urging the administration to do exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n McCormick, alongside U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, made headlines in Pennsylvania last week when the state\u2019s two senators penned a letter<\/a> to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy calling for answers about the cancellation of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, or AHRQ, grants.\u00a0<\/p>\n The senators wrote to express concern about researchers at the Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia, known as CHOP, and the University of Pittsburgh, being notified on July 15 about the cancellation of funding for ongoing, multi-year projects.<\/p>\n In Wednesday\u2019s op-ed, the third change for the NIH McCormick called for was the need to \u201cdemand accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe NIH\u2019s costly, noncompetitive overhead system should be replaced with one that rewards efficiency, makes institutions compete for infrastructure dollars and gives smaller research centers a fair shot,\u201d McCormick wrote.<\/p>\n He said the institute \u201chas become opaque and bureaucratic,\u201d citing a statistic that nearly 1 in 3 grant dollars goes to overhead, and \u201ctaxpayers can\u2019t easily see financial ties of researchers to industry.\u201d However, he argued that there are fixes to this problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n In an effort to address this, McCormick said he\u2019ll be introducing legislation dubbed the Sunshine for Researchers Act, which would require federally funded researchers to disclose significant financial connections to the business sector. He also promoted legislation he authored with U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat representing Delaware, to help retain young scientists, called the NIH Mentorship Modernization Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n McCormick leads off the op-ed citing the story of KJ Muldoon<\/a>, who was born with a rare, often fatal genetic disorder whose life was saved at CHOP with the world\u2019s first personalized<\/a> gene-editing therapy.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this pivotal moment, incrementalism is the nation\u2019s greatest enemy. America was built by pilgrims and pioneers who dared to push beyond the known,\u201d McCormick writes at the conclusion of the op-ed. \u201cWe must summon that spirit again by investing boldly, prioritizing science and reforming relentlessly. If we dare, KJ\u2019s story can be the beginning of a new golden age of American science.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2013 Arguing that the U.S. is \u201cunderinvesting in discovery,\u201d U.S. Sen. 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