Cardin Visits NIH for Capital Projects Tour, NIMHD Briefing

Side view of conference table with Sen. Cardin on staff on one side and NIH leaders on the other in the CC Medical Board Room.

Senator Ben Cardin chats at a roundtable briefing with NIH leaders.

The group poses together in the Board Room, including Gibbons, Tabak, Cardin, Schwetz, Germino, Webb Hooper.

On hand for the visit are (from l) Dr. Gary H. Gibbons, NHLBI director; Dr. Lawrence Tabak, then-acting NIH director; Cardin; Dr. Tara Schwetz, then-acting NIH principal deputy director; Dr. Gregory Germino, NIDDK deputy director; Dr. Monica Webb Hooper, NIMHD deputy director; Karen Hendricks, constituent services/community outreach representative for Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Sarah Lev, constituent services caseworker for U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD).

Cardin walks down a corridor with three NIH leaders.

Cardin dropped by several areas of the Clinical Center. Here, he takes a tour led by Dr. Constance Noguchi, acting chief of NIDDK’s Molecular Medicine Branch. Shown behind them are NIH Associate Director for Budget Neil Shapiro (second from l) and NIDDK Scientific Director Dr. Mike Krause (r).

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) and staffers visited with several NIH leaders on Oct. 27 to discuss work related to minority health. He asked specifically to chat about accomplishments at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) and upcoming needs and goals. Cardin was critical in establishing NIMHD.

In addition, the senator had participated in a buildings and facilities tour in 2019. During this visit, the Office of Research Facilities gave an update on what NIH has accomplished in response to the 2019 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report and highlighted how NIH is managing a backlog of maintenance and repairs (BMAR). The recent tour illustrated what space with high BMAR looks like and the dramatic improvements NIH can achieve with congressional support.