At American Cancer Society/Cancer Action Network, Casey Details Impact of Cuts to Patients, Jobs | Patients, Medical Professional Discussed Their Experience with Lifesaving Research that Congress Has Put on Chopping Block
Philadelphia, PA- With little more than a month to go before Congress’ budget deadline, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), joined by patients and researchers, pushed to restore job-creating NIH funding that was gutted by the sequester. At the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network in Philadelphia, Casey detailed the impact that these cuts have on patients and the region’s economy.
“There are many reasons to invest in medical research, but the two most important reasons are: it saves lives, and it creates jobs,” said Senator Casey. “We simply cannot afford, from a public health or an economic standpoint, to ignore medical research.”
The NIH is our country’s premier institution for medical research. NIH research has a significant economic impact, directly supporting hundreds of thousands of researchers, assistants and other lab and administrative staff, while indirectly supporting even more jobs in the fields of pharmaceutical and medical device research, development and manufacturing.
In 2012, Pennsylvania researchers received $1,431,589,539 ($1.4 billion) in grants from the National Institutes of Health; the state is ranked 4th in the Nation for the number of grants awarded. This funding supported over 3,400 competitive grants to almost 100 Pennsylvania companies or universities; in turn, these grants supported thousands of jobs across the state – an estimated 2,500 in-state jobs and total employment impact of over 24,000 jobs.
Regional data below shows the impact that medical research has across the state.
Pennsylvania Funding in FY 2012 by Congressional District
|
Congressional District |
Number of NIH Awards |
Total Funding |
|
1 |
367 |
$118,949,249.00 |
|
2 |
1,571 |
$673,976,803.00 |
|
4 |
2 |
$285,584.00 |
|
5 |
175 |
$57,886,011.00 |
|
6 |
30 |
$12,602,961.00 |
|
7 |
9 |
$2,441,356.00 |
|
8 |
15 |
$5,868,854.00 |
|
10 |
14 |
$5,279,822.00 |
|
11 |
1 |
$227,829.00 |
|
13 |
4 |
$864,606.00 |
|
14 |
1,159 |
$492,669,135.00 |
|
15 |
11 |
$3,208,605.00 |
|
16 |
5 |
$1,427,227.00 |
|
17 |
129 |
$55,901,497.00 |
|
Total |
3,492 |
$1,431,589,539.00 |
Senator Casey has also previously written to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Barbara Mikulski and Ranking Member Richard Shelby asking for NIH funding to be maintained in the Fiscal Year 2014 budget.
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