Endocrine Insider
April 3, 2008

As part of its ongoing advocacy for improved funding for biomedical research, The Endocrine Society submitted written testimony to be included in the public record of the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee requesting a reasonable funding increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in FY 2009. The Society’s testimony adds to the collective voice of the biomedical research community, which will help to illustrate to members of Congress the importance of their continued support of biomedical research.

The testimony, which may be viewed here, calls on the House to allocate $31.1 billion to NIH in FY 2009 in order to recoup the losses caused by biomedical inflation over the last few years, fund necessary new research programs, and build on the discoveries made during the doubling period. As outlined in the testimony, the continued decline in real dollars allocated to biomedical research each year by the federal government has had a negative impact on the opportunities to discover life-changing cures and treatments. Without federal support of basic and clinical research, many of the cures and treatments that have helped to improve the lives of individuals suffering from chronic illnesses would never have been developed.