Senate HELP Ranking Member Cassidy Releases White Paper on Recommendations to Improve the NIH

On May 9, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, released a white paper titled NIH in the 21 Century: Ensuring Transparency and American Biomedical Leadership. The white paper was released following the collection of comments from a request for information (RFI) from Cassidy’s office on reforming the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (see previous COSSA coverage). In the white paper, Cassidy underscored the importance of NIH-funded research, citing that “every dollar NIH spends on research generates $2.46 in economic activity” and the “FY 23 investments provided support for over 400,000 jobs and generated nearly $93 billion.” He discussed a lack of formal review of NIH operations, which Congress has not completed since the passage of the 21st Century Cures Act in 2016 (see previous COSSA coverage), and suggested that a critical review of the NIH is required to encourage improved efficiency within the agency.

Further, Cassidy encouraged collaboration between Congress and the NIH to improve the efficiency of the agency, particularly with interest in building upon current initiatives to bolster competitiveness within biomedical research, improve the research application process within the agency and address challenges of current grant programs, and restore public trust in scientific research. Cassidy suggested that the NIH focus on broadening research participants. In reference to the NIH application process, Cassidy recommended that the NIH address challenges reported by researchers in the comments collected from his RFI, including perceived biases that researchers may have towards their own topics. Cassidy also suggested that the NIH prioritize restoring public trust in science, detailing the exacerbating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on trust in science, through promoting transparency and research integrity. He also raised concerns regarding the potential misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) to alter data results.

While NIH in the 21 Century: Ensuring Transparency and Biomedical Leadership offered various recommendations for improving NIH operations, Cassidy also mentioned recent initiatives that have sought to address these concerns, such as the recently approved Clinical Trials Network to provide opportunities for researchers to collect data in broader communities, the NIH recent announcement in peer-review changes intended to take effect in 2025, and the newly implemented NIH data sharing policy intended to allow researchers to validate and reuse data. In his conclusion, Cassidy highlighted the importance of Congress working together and with stakeholders “to harness this opportunity to strengthen NIH for the next generation of Americans.”

The full report can be found in Cassidy’s announcement.