Durbin Highlights Importance Of NIH Funding To Red States & Urges Republican Senators To Stand Up For Medical Research As Trump Freezes Funding
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today spoke on the Senate floor slamming the Trump Administration for freezing medical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) during the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency. Durbin has been a fierce advocate for NIH funding and worked with his colleagues—both Republicans and Democrats—over the years to increase NIH funding by 60 percent. NIH funding appropriated by Congress and secured by Durbin, is used for research to find new ways to fight childhood cancers, ALS, Alzheimer’s, and much more. Durbin said, “That progress, and the hope it brings to patients and families—is why I am dismayed to see how President Trump has dismantled medical research in America during his first 100 days in office… President Trump has frozen NIH funding to university labs and hospitals across the board. For example, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois—a cancer