Director Testifies at Senate Hearing on FY25 Budget Request

At the recent Senate hearing on the 2025 budget request, NIH Director Dr. Monica Bertagnolli answers questions from committee members.

NIH Director Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, along with five institute directors, testified on May 23 at a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing on NIH’s budget request for fiscal year 2025. 

Speaking before the subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and related agencies in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Bertagnolli—in her first appearance on Capitol Hill since last fall’s confirmation hearings—and the NIH contingent discussed various topics including research on H5N1 bird flu, Long Covid and other infectious diseases and the opioid crisis, as well as NIH’s role as a vital driver of states’ economic wellbeing. 

Appropriations committee chair Sen. Patty Murray

Accompanying Bertagnolli were institute leaders Dr. Gary Gibbons, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging; Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Dr. Kimryn Rathmell, director of the National Cancer Institute; and Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. 

Led by appropriations chair Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and subcommittee chair Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), legislators acknowledged the country’s difficult fiscal conditions, but also largely expressed strong bipartisan support for increasing NIH funding to the extent possible.