New Round of Sequester Cuts Slated for January, Casey Pushes for Congress to Prevent New Cuts, Roll Back Sequester / As Part of Agreement to End Shutdown, Lawmakers Set Up Bicameral, Bipartisan Conference Committee to Reach Budget Agreement in December / First Round of Cuts Sent Medical Researchers Overseas, Cost State Approximately $70M in Funds, Over 1,000 Jobs / Senator Casey Joined Experts Whose Lifesaving Research Could Be Harmed by New Sequester Cuts, Dean of Medical School
Philadelphia, PA- With a new round of arbitrary sequester cuts to lifesaving medical research looming in January, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) called on Congress to work to prevent these new cuts and roll back the sequester. Casey was joined by medical researchers who discussed the impact that these cuts have had on their work and the potential impact of additional cuts. In the fiscal year before the sequester, Philadelphia’s researchers received over $800 million in funding that supported over 20,000 jobs, but a new round of cuts could mean additional reductions in jobs and research. As part of an agreement to end the government shutdown, Congress put in place a conference committee to come up with a budget by December. This conference committee could keep in place or reverse the cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“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. The full text of Senator Casey’s letter can be found here.
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