The leaders of multiple Boston-area hospitals came together Thursday to announce plans for a national lobbying campaign against the 20 percent funding cut to the NIH within the Trump administration's proposed federal 2018 budget, according to the Boston Herald.
The meeting was called by Mayor Martin Walsh of Boston and included multiple other state politicians. The group, which includes representatives from Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, argues that NIH funding is essential for biomedical research. Last year, 56 Boston area institutions received a collective $1.85 billion in NIH funding.
The proposed budget would reduce NIH dollars by $5.8 billion.
Boston-area Massachusetts General Hospital alone could stand to lose $60 million and 600 jobs if the proposed budget is passed. The planned lobbying strategy will mostly target Republican legislators and tap the national network of physicians and healthcare leaders who spent time throughout their careers in Boston's premier teaching hospitals.
While Trump’s proposals for the 2018 budget may have many worried about the fate of the NIH, in early May a bipartisan group of legislators voted to increase NIH funding in 2017 by $2 billion.
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