October 16, 2018

 

The Honorable Tom Cole 

The Honorable Roy Blunt

The Honorable Rosa DeLauro 

The Honorable Patty Murray

 

Dear Chairman Cole, Chairman Blunt, Ranking Member DeLauro and Ranking Member Murray,

 

The undersigned organizations write to thank you and your respective staff members for securing meaningful funding increases for medical and public health research in the Fiscal Year 2019 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education/Defense Appropriations conference report (H.R. 6157).

 

Your extraordinary bipartisan leadership led to an additional $2 billion funding increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), further empowering this agency to confront serious biomedical and public health challenges that impact the health, well-being and economic prosperity of our nation. We look forward to working with you during the FY 2020 appropriations process to build on this momentum and to also advance other crucially important Department of Health and Human Services agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

 

Our organizations want to be sure that you and your staff members know how much we appreciate what you accomplished in passing this legislation before the start of the new fiscal year and including funding that will power more progress against deadly and debilitating health threats. Because of your hard work and vision, the essential, multi-faceted benefits of science will accrue faster to America and Americans.