5/30/2017 -- PHILADELPHIA — The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) strongly opposes President Trump’s fiscal year (FY) 2018 budget proposal for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). If enacted, the NIH budget would be cut by $7.2 billion in FY 2018, to $26.9 billion, more than 21 percent below the current funding level of $34.1 billion. FY 2018 begins on Oct. 1, 2017.
The shocking FY 2018 budget proposal by the Trump administration comes on the heels of action earlier this month when a strong bipartisan majority in Congress enthusiastically supported a $2 billion annual budget increase for the NIH for FY 2017, which followed a $2 billion increase for the NIH in FY 2016. Those actions sent a signal that policymakers on Capitol Hill recognize the importance of medical research as a national priority, and we hope they stand ready to fight against Trump’s proposed funding cuts.
“Over the past couple of years, we have seen a groundswell of bipartisan support for the NIH on Capitol Hill, and this commitment is essential to ensure that we have the resources available to make further strides toward defeating cancer and the many other human diseases that afflict so many Americans,” said AACR President Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, director, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and chief executive officer of the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, located in Columbus. “Therefore, we are appalled that the Trump administration would include in its budget a proposal that would risk irreversibly harming our nation’s ability to further understand the complexity of cancer and postpone the development of lifesaving therapies for patients.”
The President’s FY 2018 budget would also cut the National Cancer Institute’s budget by $1.2 billion, a 20 percent reduction from its current funding level. “This is extremely concerning, especially when factoring in all of the efforts that took place last year to establish the important goals and objectives of the transformative Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot initiative,” said Dr. Caligiuri. “If we are to accelerate the pace of research so that new, more effective therapies become available to patients, and also improve our ability to prevent cancer and detect it at an early stage, robust, sustained, and predictable annual funding increases for the NIH will be required.”
“We are at an inflection point in cancer research. We are making major strides in preventing and treating cancer, which is the result of decades of dedicated efforts on the part of policymakers, laboratory and translational cancer researchers, physician-scientists, and patient advocates to address the ravages of cancer in all of its forms,” said Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), chief executive officer of the AACR. “The budget proposal by the Trump administration would jeopardize the pace of progress we are making to save the lives of cancer patients and also extend and improve the quality of their lives. Therefore, we call on Congress to reject the Trump administration’s FY 2018 budget proposal for the NIH.”
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