On May 4, 2023, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies held a hearing to review the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget request for the National Institutes of Health.
President Biden’s proposed budget would provide $48.6 billion for the NIH, an increase of $811 million, or 1.7 percent over FY23 levels. Many individual NIH programs would receive flat-funding from FY2023.
Witnesses on the panel included: Dr. Lawrence Tabak, Acting Director for the NIH; Dr. Douglas Lowy, Principal Deputy Director of the National Cancer Institute; Dr. Joshua Gordon, Director of the National Institutes of Mental Health; Dr. Richard Hodes, Director of the National Institute on Aging; and Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The Subcommittee discussed the impacts of the FY24 budget on NIH research efforts and addressed a range of priorities enhanced by NIH funding, including:
- Improving Drug development and research for cancer treatments, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, substance use disorders and overdose prevention
- Increasing recruitment of young researchers and diversity within the research community
- Expanding NIH Cancer research centers and access to clinical trials
- Reviewing youth mental health and the impact of social media exposure
- Increasing oversight on biosafety measures
- Addressing sexual harassment by grant awardees
- Evaluating the funding of a public relations campaign pertaining to dissemination of health information surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic