Tag: Francis Collins

$6·5 billion proposed for new US health research agency

Volume 397, Issue 10288
22 May 2021

WORLD REPORT The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health would fund high-risk, high-reward medical research, but its short-term planning could stymie basic research. Susan Jaffe reports.

During his first address to a joint session of Congress last month, US President Joe Biden drew little applause from Republicans in the physically distanced, masked audience. A rare exception to their steadfast silence came when he unveiled an ambitious plan to eradicate cancer.

To help reach this goal, Biden would establish a new biomedical research agency within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) called the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The agency would provide a fast track for transforming basic science into real-world applications. [Continued here.]

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High stakes for research in US 2018 budget negotiations

Volume 390, Number  10099
 9 September 2017

WORLD REPORT    As Congress considers how to fund the government next year, scientists hope spending for research will not be curtailed. Susan Jaffe, The Lancet’s Washington correspondent, reports.  

The dramatic defeat of the Republicans’ Affordable Care Act (ACA) repeal legislation still looms over the US Capitol as Congress reconvenes this month for more tough decisions, including many that will affect health and science research programmes.  …The prospects for science funding will depend on competing budget pressures and political fissures. “There are a lot of moving parts and a lot of uncertainty”, said Matt Hourihan, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “And while a spending deal [agreement] is certainly possible, it’s hard to see how they get there from here.” [Continued here]…

Experts confident of congressional funding for US Cures Act

lancet cover 2
Volume 389,  Number 10065
14  January 2017

How future funding for the landmark 21st Century Cures Act and repeal of the Affordable Care Act may affect its success.  [Interviews with lead sponsors Representatives Fred Upton, Diana DeGette, NIH Director Francis Collins, and patient advocates.  Full article here] …

NIH hopes funding increases will continue

 lancet cover 2Volume 387, Number  10019
13 February 2016
WORLD REPORT   The US National Institutes of Health welcomed a record budget boost that might be the start of more sustained support. The Lancet’s Washington correspondent, Susan Jaffe, reports.

The US Congress recently approved the largest single increase in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 12 years—a US$2 billion raise that was twice as much as President Barack Obama requested. But almost as soon as NIH supporters stopped cheering, they began to worry about next year’s budget, and the challenge of a new public health threat, Zika virus.

NIH Director Francis Collins told The Lancet that the funding boost “was enormously gratifying”. But if it is “a one-hit wonder”, he said “it won’t be sufficient to take full advantage of the remarkable scientific opportunities and talent that is out there”.   [Continued here] [podcast here]

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Budget boon for biomedical research

Susan Jaffe | Washington Correspondent for The Lancet | 31st December 2015

budget 123115The US Congress has become famous for political gridlock  but sThe Lancet USA blog logohortly before going home for the holidays, members approved a 2,009-page budget for fiscal year 2016 with generous increases for some key health and science agencies, most notably the ailing National Institutes of Health. [Continued here.]…

NIH budget shrinks despite Ebola emergency funds

image Volume 385, Issue 9966, 31 January 2015

WORLD REPORT Even with a boost in funding for Ebola research, the US National Institutes of Health’s fiscal year 2015 budget is the lowest in years. Susan Jaffe, The Lancet’s Washington correspondent, reports.

During last year’s contentious congressional hearings investigating the US response to Ebola, the Obama Administration’s top health officials fended off criticism hurled by both Democrats and Republicans. But in another show of bipartisanship only a few weeks later, Congress granted nearly all of President Barack Obama’s request for emergency funding to combat the disease here and abroad.

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NIH Director Francis Collins

In his State of the Union address earlier this month, the President expressed his appreciation: “In west Africa, our troops, our scientists, our doctors, our nurses, and health-care workers are rolling back Ebola—saving countless lives, and stopping the spread of disease”, he said, drawing applause from both sides of the aisle. “I couldn’t be prouder of them, and I thank this Congress for your bipartisan support of their efforts.”

Congress narrowly approved the US$5·4 billion emergency Ebola funding contained in the $1·1 trillion spending bill that kept the US Government running. But so far, it has done little to loosen the budget constraints on the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—even as a global health crisis such as Ebola reminded many lawmakers of its value. [MORE full text or PDF ] …

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image Volume 381, Issue 9882, Pages 1975 – 1976, 8 June 2013

WORLD REPORT Health and science agencies in the USA have been operating on reduced budgets, enforced by sequestration, for just over 3 months Susan Jaffe reports from Washington, DC.

The automatic budget cuts known as sequestration that the US Congress approved in 2011 were intended to be so onerous that they would never happen. Lawmakers would surely find a more reasonable way to save at least US$1·2 trillion over the next decade before the cuts would begin in 2013. Instead, Republicans and Democrats could not agree on an alternative, and the first wave of cuts, totalling $85 billion through to September, 2013, are phasing in for most non-defence US Government operations. Everything from White House tours to the most promising cancer research have been limited by a lack of funding.

..Many services provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are affected, including programmes at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and medical research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Even the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—President Barack Obama’s landmark health reform law—will feel the impact, with supporters worried that enrolment for next year’s new health insurance coverage will have a difficult start in October. [FULL STORY AS PDF]

 

US sequester hits health and science programmes