Welch, Baldwin Host Two-Day Forum to Spotlight How Americans are Harmed by Trump’s HHS Actions
Senators Peter Welch (D-VT) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) held a two-day forum to spotlight how Americans are being harmed by the Trump Administration’s mass firings at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This comes after the Senators hosted a similar townhall on Trump and Musk’s Cuts to Cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease Cures (see previous COSSA coverage). During the two-day forum, Sens. Welch and Baldwin invited former federal agencies officials, including Dr. Anne Schuchat, former Principal Deputy Director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Ms. Trina Dutta, former Chief of Staff at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Dr. Sean Bruna, former Senior Advisor in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and Dr. Jeremy Berg, former Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), among others.
While the first day of the forum highlighted agencies such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and more, the second day prioritized conversations around the mass firings, reorganization proposals, and other federal actions taken within CDC, SAMHSA, AHRQ, and NIH, highlighting the human harm caused. In his opening statements, Dr. Berg addressed the delay of grants within NIH due to the mass firings and review of grants for new priorities laid out by the Trump Administration (see previous COSSA coverage). Similar sentiments were echoed by the other witnesses, highlighting the effects on already appropriated funds.
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked the witnesses for clarification on whether researchers would be able to rely on funding from their institutions to sustain their work if the federal government pulls their funding, which is a common argument against opponents of federal funding. Dr. Berg agreed that, while some grantees may be able to find short-term funding solutions, there will not be enough funding for all the terminated grants to continue without the federal funding they were originally awarded. Dr. Schuchat added that losing these researchers is “a waste of government investment and a loss of future return on investment in terms of the patents and lives saved.” Dr. Berg went on to cite a Forbes article that estimated the proposed cuts to NIH and other research agencies would cost the U.S. $10 billion annually due to the high return of public-investment in scientific research (see the article here).
During the forum, Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) and Baldwin also highlighted the HHS budget hearings held by the House and Senate with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in which he made false statements about scientists not being fired in his agency (see related article). When questioned about the damage done to the biomedical research enterprise, Dr. Berg underscored that the Trump Administration is “breaking” the system and will likely dissuade young scientists from pursuing a career in biomedical research due to the instability caused by the Administration.