Senator Reed and doctors call on Trump administration to not cut NIH funding

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Sen. Jack Reed alongside doctors from the University of Rhode Island and Brown University gathered Friday to discuss growing concerns as the Trump Administration’s wave of funding cuts threaten the National Institutes of Health.

“Eliminating funding for these expenses will essentially destroy the infrastructure we need to conduct groundbreaking research including right here in the Ocean State,”  Reed said.

Reed said it was a “very serious matter” and he’s trying to avoid what he called a “constitutional crisis.”

Rhode Island joined 22 other states in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over its efforts to cut the funds that help with medical and public health research.

“The general theme here is all of these funds have been authorized by congress and appropriated by congress and therefore are legally available to be spent and must be spent,” Reed added.

Doctors in the state expressed their concerns of major cuts and said research programs will be significantly impacted.

“These proposed cuts to the NIH indirect announcement would cripple biomedical research at our university,” University of Rhode Island Dean of the College of Pharmacy Dr. Kerry LaPlante said. “Specifically, URI researchers would lose $4.8 million annual funds that support our staff, maintain these laboratories, and drive breakthroughs.”

A doctor from Brown University explained there’s a national child mental health crisis which has only grown since the pandemic and the administration’s funding cuts would lead to a slow-down in research and treatments.

“The loss of indirect funding will lead to layoffs of research personnel, loss of clinical infrastructure, and space,” Brown University Medical School Dean Dr. Mukesh Jain said. “Limiting us to treat youth and crisis within our community and in adjoining areas.”