NIH Director Commits to Providing Detailed List of Total Staff Reductions at NIH By End of Day; Senator Murray Grills Director on Cuts to Clinical Trials, Grant Terminations
ICYMI: Murray, DeLauro, Baldwin Blast Director Bhattacharya for Terminating Thousands of Active NIH Grants, Upending Research, Threatening Patient Treatment
***WATCH: Senator Murray’s exchange with Bhattacharya***
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, questioned National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya at a Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on the president’s fiscal year 2026 budget request for NIH. Senator Murray secured a commitment from Dr. Bhattacharya to provide a detailed list of total staff reductions across NIH—by Institute, Center, and Job Function—under the Trump administration by the end of the day. Senator Murray also grilled Dr. Bhattacharya on the abrupt termination of at least 160 clinical trials and the delay and freezing of grant funding, which is disrupting lifesaving research across the country.
In her opening comments, Vice Chair Murray said:
“I am extremely proud of the work that I’ve done on a bipartisan basis to strengthen our investments in NIH, to support lifesaving research, and to really maintain American leadership in biomedical innovation. I’m not going to mince words today about how that progress is now being unraveled.
“What the Trump administration is doing to NIH right now is, frankly, catastrophic. Over the past few months, this administration has fired and pushed out nearly 5,000 critical employees across NIH, prevented nearly $3 billion dollars in grant funding from being awarded, and terminated nearly 2,500 grants—totaling almost $5 billion dollars for lifesaving research that is ongoing—that includes clinical trials for HIV and Alzheimer’s disease.
“Across the country, including in my home state of Washington, research institutions have been waiting for months to receive funding for grants they’ve already been awarded. Meanwhile, NIH is cutting down on grant awards—with thousands of fewer research grants this year, and almost 15,000 fewer next year if the administration has its way.
“Because, to pile on to this destruction, you and the President are requesting that we now slash NIH’s budget by 40 percent, or $18 billion dollars. I cannot fathom to what end. The Trump administration is already systematically dismantling the American biomedical research enterprise that is the envy of the world—throwing away billions in economic activity in every one of our states, and jeopardizing the lifesaving work of researchers across the country.
“This budget proposal would effectively forfeit our leadership in research innovation and competitiveness to China. It would mean we depend on China for the latest treatments for devastating diseases.
“No one in America wants us to do less cancer research. No one is asking you to make it harder to research Alzheimer’s disease. And no one is asking you to cut lifesaving clinical trials.
“We are hearing this from the experts themselves. You just received a letter signed by hundreds of your own staff who believe this administration’s actions risk breaking NIH and the lifesaving work it does. I really hope you heed their warning, and it should go without saying, but I expect none of them to face retaliation for raising those concerns.
“Everyone on this dais wants NIH to succeed. And you’re going to need to see some major changes from what you are doing right now to get us back on the right path.”
[STAFF PUSHED OUT ACROSS NIH]
Senator Murray began her questioning by following up on points she raised on a phone call with Dr. Bhattacharya last week, and that her staff has been asking for answers to for months: “We spoke on the phone last week, I appreciate that, I want to follow up on those questions and what I’ve been trying to get answers from you for months. You told me 25 staff have been fired from the NIH Clinical Center out of the 1,445 who have been fired across the entire agency. But that does not include staff leaving after being offered buyouts or threatened with future layoffs. I want to know, what is the total number of employees who left the Clinical Center and the entire agency as a result of the Trump Administration’s personnel actions in total?”
“The numbers I have in front of me are for the Reduction in Force, that’s the 25 I mentioned in our conversation. We’ll get those numbers for the retirements to you,” said Dr. Bhattacharya.
“Well, I told you I was going to ask for this [information] over the phone, I requested this multiple times, how come you do not have that for us today?” said Senator Murray.
“My misunderstanding, I thought you were asking for the Reduction in Force numbers,” said Dr. Bhattacharya.
“No. I was being very clear,” said Senator Murray. “I want to know, by the end of the day, can I have a detailed list of reductions in staff by Institute, by Center, by job function—not just the RIFs, but total staff reductions. Can I have that by the end of the day?”
“Yes,” Dr. Bhattacharya committed.
“Okay. Those are really basic questions, and I want to see that by the end of today,” Senator Murray said.
[GRANT CANCELLATIONS FOR CLINICAL TRIALS]
Senator Murray continued her questioning by asking Dr. Bhattacharya about NIH cuts to, and termination of, hundreds of clinical trials over the past few months: “Now I am also particularly concerned, as I told you, about cuts to clinical trials—which are harming patients’ care nationwide, and the chance for better treatments and cures. NIH has now terminated at least 160 clinical trials. In addition to terminating grants, you are also delaying grant awards and freezing, or significantly delaying, institutions from being able to draw down their grant funding, which is disrupting clinical trials—to say nothing of other research that it is now threatening. How many clinical trials across the country have been impacted by the grants you have terminated, frozen, or delayed?”
“Senator, I don’t have the number for the specific numbers of trials,” Dr. Bhattacharya replied. “We’ve worked to make sure that no patients enrolled in the clinical trials are, have any delay in their care as a result of the—in 2020, the NIH terminated a very large number of clinical trials.”
“Well I’m asking you about today, under your direction,” Senator Murray said.
Dr. Bhattacharya responded, “I don’t have specific numbers, and a lot of that is subject to negotiations. I’ve set a process where people can appeal for, if there’s any decisions made regarding grant pauses and terminations and we’re actively working to make sure that that appeals process is going. The numbers are in flux, and I’m happy to get some of those numbers to you later.”
Senator Murray said, “Well we do know that patient care is being impacted, at your own Clinical Center and in more than 100 clinical trials in the country.”
“On May 30th, you terminated a 23-year research effort to develop an HIV vaccine, just as scientists, including at the Fred Hutch Center in Seattle, are on the cusp of a functional cure for HIV. Terminating those HIV vaccine trials now cuts off access to treatment for 6,000 patients in the network. You canceled a clinical trial evaluating new evidence-based interventions for Type 2 Diabetes in rural communities in Appalachia. You terminated a clinical trial studying immunotherapy in combination with monoclonal antibodies to treat women with recurrent ovarian cancer. That is what has already happened. So now you are coming to us today, proposing to cut NIH funding by 40 percent next year. Tell us how many fewer clinical trials would you fund in the next fiscal year with a budget cut of $18 billion dollars from NIH?” Senator Murray asked.
“Senator, can I just address HIV, because I am absolutely committed—in 2019, President Trump issued a challenge for us to eliminate the threat to HIV in this country,” Dr. Bhattacharya said. “And we’ve had a 22 percent reduction in HIV transmission since then. We now have the technological tools to do that, and I’ve been working on developing a program to actually implement this vision, so we can use—"
“But you did terminate the HIV research at Fred Hutch that, again, was on the cusp of a treatment for 6,000 patients nationwide. You did do that?” Senator Murray pushed back.
“I don’t—I’d have to get back to you on that,” Dr. Bhattacharya replied.
“You did do that,” Senator Murray said.
“Senator, I think we actually have now the chance, with the existing technologies, Lenacapavir and other treatments, to actually address—” Dr. Bhattacharya hedged.
“I’m delighted to hear that, but I’m just telling you what clinical trials have been terminated and I’m asking you this because we have to write an appropriations bill,” Senator Murray replied. “How many fewer clinical trials will you fund in the next fiscal year with an $18 billion dollar cut? That’s your budget request.”
“Senator, the budget request is a work of negotiation between Congress and the administration. President Trump has issued a letter to Secretary Kratsios committing the United States to be the leading nation—” dodged Dr. Bhattacharya.
“Well you’re not answering the question. We need to know how many fewer clinical trials, can you get that number back to me please? You’re asking for a budget, we’re trying to figure out what that will fund. That’s our job,” Senator Murray said.
“The number depends on what the requests we get for proposals from all across the country. The budget itself would be dependent on what you all do, as well as what the administration does,” Dr. Bhattacharya responded.
Senator Murray pressed, “Well I know, but we are trying to write a budget with the knowledge that you have, with the request that you have, I’m asking a question, how many fewer clinical trials—we need an answer back to that.”
Dr. Bhattacharya again said, “It’s hard to give an answer back to that because I don’t know what the proposals are going to be.” To which Senator Murray replied: “You came here today to ask for a budget that reduces NIH significantly. I would expect as Director, you would know the impacts of that. We need to know what the impacts are in order to fund that budget.”
“Senator, I mean it’s hard to say what the researchers of the country are going to do in response, for a hypothetical budget—” replied Dr. Bhattacharya.
“Would you say there’s going to be MORE clinical trials under that? Under an $18 billion dollar, 40 percent cut?” Senator Murray asked.
“It seems unlikely,” Dr. Bhattacharya admitted. “But I will say this, that the budget itself is a negotiation between the administration and Congress. Congress allocates the funds. I am absolutely committed to making sure that, whatever the allocation goes, that we address the health—"
“You are asking us for a significant reduction. It will impact the health of the United States of America. This committee has an obligation to know how you are spending that money,” Senator Murray concluded.
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Senator Murray has been a leading voice in Congress raising the alarm over HHS’ unilateral reorganization plan and slamming the closure of the HHS Region 10 office in Seattle and the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Spokane Research Laboratory. Senator Murray has sent oversight letters and hosted numerous press conferences and events to lay out how the administration’s reckless gutting of HHS is risking Americans health and safety and will set our country back decades, and lifting up the voices of HHS employees who were fired for no reason and through no fault of their own.
In particular, Senator Murray has been leading the charge against the Trump administration’s efforts to gut lifesaving research at NIH and push out nearly 5,000 NIH skilled scientists, grants administrators, and other employees at the agency. Senator Murray released a statement decrying the Trump administration’s all-out assault on the NIH upon meeting with Bhattacharya in February, and at his nomination hearing in March, she pressed Mr. Bhattacharya on the Trump administration’s efforts to cut billions from biomedical research through an illegal cap on indirect costs, and their unprecedented halt on NIH Advisory Council Meetings, among other issues.
When the Trump administration attempted to illegally cap indirect cost rates at 15 percent, Senator Murray immediately and forcefully condemned the move, led the entire Senate Democratic caucus in a letter decrying the proposed change, and introduced amendments to Senate Republicans’ budget resolution to reverse it, which Republicans blocked. Murray has led Congressional efforts to boost biomedical research. Previously, over her years as Chair of the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Murray secured billions of dollars in increases for biomedical research at NIH, and during her time as Chair of the HELP Committee she established the new ARPA-H research agency as part of her PREVENT Pandemics Act to advance some of the most cutting-edge research in the field. Senator Murray was also the lead Democratic negotiator of the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, which delivered a major federal investment to boost NIH research, among many other investments.
Senator Murray forcefully opposed the nomination of notorious anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. to be Secretary of HHS, and she has long worked to combat vaccine skepticism and highlight the importance of scientific research and vaccines. Murray was also a leading voice against the nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon to lead CDC, repeatedly speaking up about her serious concerns with the nominee immediately after their meeting. In 2019, Senator Murray co-led a bipartisan hearing in the HELP Committee on vaccine hesitancy and spoke about the importance of addressing vaccine skepticism and getting people the facts they need to keep their families and communities safe and healthy. Ahead of the 2019 hearing, as multiple states were facing measles outbreaks in under-vaccinated areas, Murray sent a bipartisan letter with former HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander pressing Trump’s CDC Director and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health on their efforts to promote vaccination and vaccine confidence.
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