It Appears That Susan Collins Is Approaching Condition Concerned: "Urgent Warning" About Demolishing Medical Research [View all]

[hatrack]

Sen. Susan Collins has an urgent warning about the state of biomedical research in the United States, saying the country could lose its edge if it continues on its current track.

At the Senate Appropriations Committee’s first full hearing this Congress Wednesday, Collins, the Maine Republican who chairs the panel, called on the Trump administration to reverse course on cutbacks. She cited the administration’s cap on indirect research costs, the canceling of grants and the mass firing of employees across the Health and Human Services Department. “These actions put our leadership in biomedical innovation at real risk and must be reversed,” she said.

Her message is the starkest opposition yet from a Republican lawmaker to the Trump administration’s health care agenda. Collins, who also serves on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, voted to confirm HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Stability is a key aspect of the American formula, because it allows scientists to focus their work, knowing that they will have the support they need to pursue and test their ideas from start to finish,” she said at the hearing, which focused on keeping America competitive in biomedical research.

Sudip Parikh, the CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, testified at the hearing that if funding for fiscal 2026 resembles White House “passback” budget, the country will have lost the competition for innovation with China. “I want to be really clear, we’re no longer in a race with China on bio,” if HHS funds are cut by the proposed amounts, he said. “We would have lost that place.”

Ed. - Emphasis added.

EDIT

https://rollcall.com/2025/04/30/collins-urges-reversal-of-trumps-biomedical-research-clawbacks/