National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya testified on Feb. 3 before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee in a broad hearing focused on modernizing the agency. Bhattacharya pointed to the need for greater research funding dedicated to non-MD healthcare providers, the opioid crisis and overdose mitigation, lack of trust in primary care providers, transparency, and stagnating U.S. life expectancy as major priority areas under his leadership at the institute.
Bhattacharya and multiple committee members pointed to the 80,000 Americans who died from opioid overdoses in 2024, and the need for greater research in addiction recovery. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) underscored her concern for the worsening crisis in her state, with greater opioid dependency and subsequent deaths than the national average. She asked Bhattacharya if he would commit to increasing anti-opioid research funding, and he gave a firm “yes.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Bhattacharya spoke to the NIH’s new elimination of “embargo” periods before research is made public. Previously, research journals could retain results behind a paywall or paid subscriptions for a waiting period typically up to one year before being made free and public. In an effort to increase transparency, NIH has now ended this embargo, and research is made accessible to everyone from the moment it gets published.
Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) spoke to NIH’s crucial role at the forefront of scientific breakthroughs, highlighting its funding of more than 50,000 research projects each year. As NIH is the largest public funder of research in the world, Cassidy underscored the bipartisan support for the institute’s work and priorities on the committee. He noted that Congress typically considers reforms and budgeting for NIH each decade, pointing to the 2006 and 2016 packages, with plans to revisit again this year. Bhattacharya and committee members said they support increasing anti-opioid research in the next decade’s funding. Sen. Susan Collins said they expect to see the president’s proposed budget “soon.”
Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) mentioned the more than 1,000 NIH-funded projects terminated last year, alongside the biggest Medicaid cuts in history under the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Sen. Sanders claimed $273 million in NIH cancer research was cut or frozen, as well as millions previously dedicated to other prominent diseases such as Alzheimer’s and heart disease. Bhattacharya concurred that some projects had been halted, with the note that he believed some had been political in nature.
Bhattacharya emphasized the need for greater coverage of underfunded research, especially for non-MD providers and states that receive a tiny fraction of the country’s overall grants. He said that just six states receive about 50% of national NIH research funding, and the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) is being further developed to direct money to institutions in underfunded states. He said we need to address these underfunded areas in this year’s NIH budget.
Heading into this year’s funding talks, the NIH director’s overall focus encompasses addressing the opioid crisis, increasing transparency, and tackling underfunded research areas, including the crucial work of non-MD healthcare providers. Bhattacharya spoke as the sole witness to the Senate HELP committee to give an update on his management of the agency and his priorities, and in preparation for this year’s important budget talks.
Emma Meehan is ACA’s associate manager of federal government relations.
