[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 601 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 601
Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to lead the world in
biomedical research.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 23, 2025
Ms. DeGette (for herself, Mr. Raskin, and Mr. Auchincloss) submitted
the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy
and Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to lead the world in
biomedical research.
Whereas the model of Federal Government funding to support free scientific
inquiry in partnership with academia and industry since World War II has
produced an unprecedented increase in knowledge about medicine and the
human body;
Whereas the National Institutes of Health has grown from a single laboratory at
its founding in 1887 to the world's leading grant-making agency and
crown jewel of biomedical progress as the world's largest single public
funder of biomedical and behavioral research;
Whereas the Federal Government's unprecedented investment in research to solve
military medical challenges in World War II directly led to
breakthroughs such as large-scale penicillin production, ushered in a
golden age of drug development, and provided the foundation for the
National Institutes of Health extramural research program;
Whereas the funds of the National Institutes of Health support basic research
that enables downstream scientific breakthroughs but that cannot be
replicated in private settings, as this research often cannot be
directly monetized into a marketable good or service or is considered
too early-stage, too risky, or too complex for industry investment;
Whereas research supported by the National Institutes of Health has underpinned
nearly every new drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration in
the 21st century;
Whereas federally funded research into the hepatitis C virus paved the way for
direct-acting antivirals that cure a previously life-threatening disease
in 95 percent of cases;
Whereas the death rate for HIV/AIDS has decreased from a peak of 16.2 per
100,000 in 1995 to 1.4 per 100,000 today, and 50 drugs are now available
to manage HIV;
Whereas National Institutes of Health research has improved understanding of the
causes, prevention, and treatment of heart disease, leading in part to a
reduction in the death rate from heart disease from 307 per 100,000 in
1950 to 135 per 100,000 in 1996, and decreased rates of stroke by 70
percent in this same period;
Whereas the National Institutes of Health's more than $8,000,000,000 annual
investment in cancer research generates $69,000,000,000 in annual
economic activity and 7,000,000 jobs, and has fueled a reduction in the
cancer death rate in the United States by 34 percent from 1991 to 2022,
averting approximately 4,500,000 deaths;
Whereas research funded by the United States Government over 35 years prior to
the COVID-19 pandemic led to the capability of developing and delivering
effective vaccines in under 1 year;
Whereas the Human Genome Project launched the genomic revolution while producing
$796,000,000,000 in economic returns for an investment of only
$3,800,000,000, a return on investment of $209 for every $1 invested,
and the All of Us Research Program will enable a further revolution in
precision medicine;
Whereas federally supported research led to the recent development and use of a
miraculous personalized gene-editing therapy to treat an infant with a
rare, incurable disease, making history and laying the groundwork to
rapidly develop treatments for other rare genetic diseases;
Whereas researchers in America, due to scientific workforce breated by public
investment, are uniquely positioned to address major challenges in
public health and medicine, including--
(1) an aging population, with nearly 58,000,000 Americans age 65 or
older and increasing;
(2) approximately 6 in 10 Americans have at least 1 chronic disease;
(3) more than 90-percent of the Nation's $4,500,000,000,000 in annual
health care expenditures go to treat individuals with chronic diseases and
mental health conditions;
(4) over 2,800,000 antibiotic resistant infections occur in the United
States annually;
(5) approximately 945,000 Americans die of heart disease or stroke each
year;
(6) approximately 2,000,000 Americans are diagnosed with cancer each
year and over 600,000 Americans die from cancer each year;
(7) over 38,000,000 Americans have diabetes, and over 98,000,000
Americans have prediabetes; and
(8) nearly 7,000,000 Americans have Alzheimer's disease;
Whereas the Trump administration has reduced the biomedical research capacity of
the United States and put the United States at risk of losing a
generation of scientific talent;
Whereas the Trump administration at its outset halted National Institutes of
Health advisory councils and study sections, effectively freezing new
grantmaking activities;
Whereas the Trump administration implemented a communications freeze at the
Department of Health and Human Services, preventing researchers at
National Institutes of Health Clinical Center from meeting with patient
groups or recruiting patients for clinical trials of new therapies;
Whereas the Trump administration's ban on research in collaboration with
international partners or involving topics deemed disfavored led to the
illegal termination or delay of nearly 2,500 meritorious grants at the
National Institutes of Health in the first 4 months of the
administration;
Whereas the Trump administration fired thousands of employees supporting
critical biomedical research at the Department of Health and Human
Services, including at the National Cancer Institute, where the
administration fired staff responsible for disseminating new evidence on
cancer treatment and diagnosis, leaving doctors and patients to access
outdated information, and delaying scientific progress toward finding
new treatments and cures;
Whereas the Trump administration has proposed cutting funding for the National
Institutes of Health by 40-percent and reducing its 27 Institutes and
Centers to just 8, which would significantly undermine the abilities of
the Institutes to effectuate their core scientific missions and decimate
progress toward understanding and treating disease;
Whereas the Congressional Budget Office has found that a 10-percent funding
reduction for the National Institutes of Health would result in 2 fewer
drugs coming to market each year;
Whereas the Trump administration has, for the first time in National Institutes
of Health's history, placed political appointees in positions other than
the Director and the Director of the National Cancer Institute,
including within the National Institutes of Health's Institutes and
Centers, threatening the independence of the National Institutes of
Health scientific decision making, and risking the American people's
trust in the National Institutes of Health's investments, statements,
and advice;
Whereas the Trump administration is purging scientists who are seen as
insufficiently aligned with the administration's views from National
Institutes of Health processes;
Whereas the Trump administration has halted funding allocated to leading
academic research institutions for lifesaving research as leverage to
achieve unrelated policy objectives, thereby halting or delaying ongoing
biomedical research projects; and
Whereas the actions of the Trump administration have led our adversaries to
attempt to entice our researchers and scientists to leave our shores and
relocate abroad: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives
that--
(1) the biomedical research of the United States and
development capacity is a national asset that must be
protected, improved, and expanded;
(2) Federal Government efforts through the National
Institutes of Health ensure a robust biomedical research
apparatus and support the global role of the United States as a
leader of biomedical advancement and innovation;
(3) the biomedical research workforce of the United States,
including the public servants at the National Institutes of
Health and other Federal agencies, should be treated with
respect, and the jobs associated with biomedical research
should offer good pay and benefits;
(4) protecting public health must be a whole-of-government
collaboration beginning with the research necessary to advance
public health;
(5) Federal Government support is integral to--
(A) training new scientists in varied public health
and research disciplines;
(B) encouraging and facilitating premier scientists
to stay in the United States for their careers;
(C) ensuring a robust field of scientists in the
United States who are committed to the advancement of
science, public health, and biomedicine; and
(D) stability of biomedical research funding so
that United States-based researchers are focused on
science and advancement rather than administrative
burdens or political interference;
(6) scientific decision making in the Federal Government
should be driven by the best available evidence, effectuated by
peer-reviewed scientists, and insulated from political
interference;
(7) over the next decade, the Federal Government should
double its investment in biomedical research and properly
applying the findings of biomedical research to medical
practice;
(8) Federal biomedical research investments should--
(A) support basic research that improves our
understanding of the human body in all its diversity,
and how external factors such as lifestyle factors,
social factors, and environmental factors affect its
function;
(B) support research that seeks to clarify the root
causes of diseases;
(C) support translational science that accelerates
access of Americans to novel treatments;
(D) support potentially transformative high-risk,
high-reward research;
(E) support and enable collaborative, broad-based
resources that may be used across different researchers
and institutions;
(F) support and enable research collaboration
across individual researchers and institutions and
facilitate knowledge sharing;
(G) serve a dual mandate of increasing
understanding of a particular scientific question and
increasing the capacity of funded researchers and
institutions to perform future research of value;
(H) support transparency, accountability, and
replicability in innovative biomedical research;
(I) support novel processes, products, and other
innovations that have the potential to prevent,
mitigate, or cure disease, particularly those which may
reduce overall health care expenditures; and
(J) support the integration of evidence generated
by biomedical research into clinical practice,
including by expanding partnerships with Federal health
agencies, health professionals, patients, health
systems, payors, industry, and community-based
organizations; and
(9) it should be the policy of the Federal Government to
invest in research with the potential to improve the quality of
life for all Americans and innovations in medicine, including--
(A) reversing the recent decline in United States
life expectancy;
(B) developing technologies to ensure the ability
to prevent and respond to microbial threats to humans
and animals;
(C) identifying the underlying causes of
neurogenerative diseases and developing tools to reduce
the burden of such diseases;
(D) reducing the death rate from cancer and
improving the quality of life of those diagnosed with
cancer;
(E) reducing the burden of Alzheimer's disease and
related dementias, including by developing evidence-
based tools to effectively prevent Alzheimer's disease;
(F) reducing the number of people who die waiting
for transplantable organs to zero;
(G) avoiding preventable diabetes diagnoses;
(H) reducing deaths from cardiovascular disease,
including stroke;
(I) developing versatile therapeutic platforms that
can be repurposed for various applications, including
treatments for ultrarare genetic diseases;
(J) developing effective interventions to prevent
and treat chronic symptoms of viral and bacterial
infections, including COVID-19, Lyme disease, and
Epstein-Barr virus;
(K) developing effective preventive vaccines and
therapeutics for diseases that have historically
affected underserved populations worldwide and
attracted lower levels of investment, such as
chikungunya, dengue, and malaria; and
(L) improving representation in clinical trials to
ensure broad applicability of scientific findings and
improve the health of underserved populations.
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