Keep High-Paying Research Jobs in America
From: The Honorable Edward J. Markey
Bill: H.R. 1
Date: 2/15/2011
Dear Colleague:
Everyone recognizes the importance of fiscal responsibility and the need to cut wasteful
spending that does nothing to create jobs. That’s why it’s so hard to understand the Republicans’
decision to slash funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in their Continuing
Resolution, a move that is neither fiscally responsible nor does anything to further our goal of
job creation and economic growth.
As such, we have introduced an amendment to Section 1812 of H.R. 1 to restore full
funding for the NIH, offset by reducing massive and unnecessary corporate oil and gas
subsidies.
The NIH is America’s National Institute of Hope for finding cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s,
Parkinson’s, and cancer, but this bill would put groundbreaking NIH research on life support by
slashing funding and crippling its ability to make discoveries that could better the lives of
millions of Americans. NIH research is also essential to containing soaring medical costs,
strengthening our economy, and maintaining our nation’s leadership in innovation and cutting
edge research.
Federal funding for NIH supports more than 300,000 high-paying research positions at over
3,000 universities and research institutions across the country. Another 6,000 scientists work in
NIH’s own laboratories. It generates countless new jobs and represents a key pillar of our
economic recovery. In his State of the Union speech, President Obama emphasized the need to
invest in biomedical research as a way to “win the future” and keep our competitive edge in
R&D worldwide. And if American researchers can’t step up to the plate, there are thousands of
individuals in China and India ready to take the lead. Now is not the time to scale back that
commitment and undermine job creation in a growing, high-paying industry.
Finally, by slashing NIH funding, this bill fails to recognize the importance of NIH
breakthroughs in curbing our soaring healthcare costs. The fight against Alzheimer’s is just one
example. We spend $172 billion annually on Alzheimer’s and as baby-boomers age, this single
disease is projected to strike an estimated 13 to 16 million Americans and the costs to Medicare
and Medicaid will skyrocket to $800 billion. Today, researchers at the NIH are poised to make
major discoveries to help us better understand Alzheimer’s, prevent the disease, and save billions
of dollars in federal healthcare spending.
A cut in funding will cause high-paying jobs to be lost, promising research projects to be frozen,
and hope of finding a cure for devastating diseases to be put on hold. We cannot allow that to
happen, and we hope that you will support our amendment to protect funding for this vital
institution.
Sincerely,
Edward J. Markey Joe Courtney
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Susan Davis Brian Higgins
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Rush Holt Janice Schakowsky
Member of Congress Member of Congress