Radiology societies urge Congress to halt $3B in proposed cuts to NIH
Twenty-four imaging advocacy groups from across the U.S. are urging Congress to stave off any cuts to the National Institutes of Health, which funds numerous radiology-related research initiatives.
President Donald Trump’s 2021 budget, unveiled on Feb. 10, proposes to slash funds for the agency by about $3 billion or 7% from the previous year’s funding levels. But a collection of some 335 organizations called the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research—which includes the American College of Radiology and numerous other such societies—want lawmakers to quash this idea.
The ACR and others are, instead, pushing for $44.7 billion in funding, which represents a $3 billion increase, year over year, according to their Feb. 10 letter to Congress.
“Today, more than ever before, we are on the cusp of profound new advances in science and medicine, such as cancer immunotherapies and gene-editing tools. These discoveries can help solve some of our greatest health challenges and hold great potential to yield treatments for devastating diseases that currently have none,” the groups wrote. “To further realize the potential of medical research, we must continue this forward momentum.”
Trump’s 2020 spending plan included $41.7 billion toward the NIH, funding numerous research initiatives that touch radiology, such as the Cancer Moonshot ($195 million) and the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative ($50 million).
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.