Press Release

During today’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL14--Tampa/St. Petersburg) urged her colleagues to maintain America's leadership in medical research.  Rep. Castor pressed health officials to be as aggressive as possible in preventing and treating the Ebola virus. Video from today’s Congressional Hearing

“This is a wake-up call for America. We cannot allow NIH funding to stagnate any longer,” U.S. Rep. Castor said, pointing to her efforts to reverse the damage done by shutting down the government and erosion of federal investments in medical research. U.S. Rep. Castor also discussed NIH and the importance  of speeding development of Ebola treatments and drugs. 

“We will only save lives if we can robustly fund medical research in America and keep America as a world leader.”

Earlier this month, Dr. Francis Collins, NIH Director, stated that the development of Ebola drugs has been curtailed by reduced funding to NIH. 

“Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would’ve gone through clinical trials and would have been ready,” Dr. Collins told the Huffington Post. “We would have been a year or two ahead of where we are, which would have made all the difference.

NIH funding is discretionary and at the mercy of budget battles. Last year, the NIH was cut by 5.1 percent, resulting in 640 fewer competitive research grants than in 2012. The State of Florida suffered a $67 million setback. Over the last two years, NIH has been hit with an 11 percent cut. U.S. Rep. Castor has proposed to make NIH funding permanent to support the years-long research required to discover medical breakthroughs that save lives. 

U.S. Rep. Castor serves on the House Energy & Commerce Committee, which has oversight of funding for the Department of Health & Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and NIH, and the House Budget Committee. She has vowed to fight for more health research funding and raise the profile of the importance of health care innovation.

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