DeGette, Pallone, and Democratic Health Subcommittee Members Demand Hearing on Alarming Disruptions at NIH
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Diana DeGette (CO-01), Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) and all Democratic Health subcommittee members called for an urgent hearing with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), amid growing concerns over sweeping disruptions to the agency since the beginning of the second Trump Administration.
In a letter sent to Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY), the Members requested a hearing to examine “significant staff reductions at the agency, the documented delayed or canceled research activities at NIH, and policy changes that have taken place in the first months of the Trump administration.”
“Congress has a constitutional responsibility to oversee executive actions that fundamentally alter the structure, capacity, and mission of agencies established in statute, in a bipartisan manner. The current trajectory of NIH under the Trump administration is alarming, marked by political interference, anti-science rhetoric, and destabilizing personnel and funding decisions,” the letter reads.
The Members outlined sweeping and destabilizing changes at NIH since January, including:
- Attempting to push out at least 2,500 NIH staff as part of broader HHS-wide staff reductions totaling more than 20,000 employees;
- Cancelling over 800 research grants—totaling billions of dollars—impacting research into cancer, mental health, rare diseases, infectious disease, and health disparities;
- Freezing NIH grant-operations and external communications, stalling the agency’s ability to carry out its mission; and
- Proposing a nearly 40% budget cut to NIH in the Administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget, despite strong bipartisan support for biomedical research.
The letter continues, “It is critical the Energy and Commerce Committee convene a hearing with Director Bhattacharya to examine these actions and assess whether the NIH remains equipped to serve the American people and maintain its leadership in global biomedical research. We are deeply concerned the disruption at NIH and our biomedical research enterprise will have untold costs in terms of lost innovation and treatments and cures for the American people.”
The Members sent the letter following the publication of the "Bethesda Declaration" in which hundreds of current and recently terminated NIH employees expressed deep concerns to Director Bhattacharya about the direction NIH has taken under President Trump.
Read the Member’s full letter here.
###