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October 6, 2006 

Improving Medical Research by Removing Politics

By: Congressman Joe Barton


The United States is a world leader in conducting cutting-edge research into diseases and disorders.  The quest to learn more, discover more, and save more lives continues to drive medical breakthroughs, and one of the greatest responsibilities of Congress is authorizing and funding research at the federal level.

The majority of this research is conducted at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the primary research arm of the federal government.  The NIH is comprised of 27 institutes and centers, each of which focuses on a specified field or on a particular type of disease or disorder, including research into autism, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, mental health, and stroke, among many, many others.

One of my primary goals as Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee has been to reauthorize the NIH in a manner that makes it more efficient.  We must ensure federal dollars spent on research are being used in a manner that will produce the best possible outcomes.  

To make this goal a reality, I introduced a bill titled “The National Institutes of Health Reform Act of 2006,” which passed the House on September 26 by an overwhelming vote of 414-2.  First and foremost, this legislation ensures the NIH is adequately funded by increasing the NIH budget next year by $1.4 billion to $29.7 billion.  This number will grow to $31.2 billion in 2008 and $32.7 billion in 2009.  

One of the primary objectives of the bill is to get the politics out of research and let the experts at the NIH be the ones to decide their priorities, rather than have politicians tell them what they should be.  Very few Members of Congress are scientists, and the determination of how to allocate research funding is best left to those who truly know and understand the needs of the research community.

Improving efficiency at the NIH also requires better collaboration between agencies on research projects that could benefit two or more institutes or centers.  As things currently stand, sometimes the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, and at times they may be attempting to do the same thing.  A key component of the bill is the creation of a new, comprehensive electronic reporting system to catalogue the research activities of the NIH in a standardized format.  This heightened transparency will help highlight areas of ongoing research, provide greater accountability of research dollars, and spur creative thinking about new scientific approaches.  This information will not only benefit the NIH internally, it will also be useful to independent investigators, public advocacy groups, and Congress.

The NIH Reform Act also establishes a “common fund” to provide funding for “trans-NIH” research projects that will benefit two or more institutes or centers.  Better collaboration frees up money for other purposes, while allowing discoveries to benefit a wider range of projects.

Many, if not all of us have been touched in some way by a disease or serious illness, either personally or through a friend or family member.  The National Institutes of Health Reform Act of 2006 brings hope for a wide spectrum of diseases and disorders given the improved treatments, and even cures that can come through research.  This bill has been referred to the Senate, where I will continue to call for and encourage its passage so these important reforms become a reality.



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