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Trump proposes to cut NIH Budget by $6 billion - around 20 per cent.

The Trump budget blueprint does not explain why NIH has been targeted for such a huge reduction, but calls for a “major reorganization” to focus on “highest priority research.”
In my opinion, this may be the only route that ME research funding might be preserved but I wouldn't hold my breath. I don't know the legal technicalities of it but given that the recently announced RFAs won't be awarded for a while yet, I wouldn't be surprised if that makes them an easy target for defunding.
 

Alvin2

The good news is patients don't die the bad news..
Messages
2,996
"Investment in research and development has been seen since World War II as critical to national prosperity and security"

The chances for ME/CFS getting money this year are minimal :cry:
Perhaps Ron Davis and the other scientists involved should move to another country that supports science and progress.
 
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Cheesus

Senior Member
Messages
1,292
Location
UK
In my opinion, this may be the only route that ME research funding might be preserved but I wouldn't hold my breath.

It has to pass through Congress first. They decide on spending, not the president. As long as there are a handful of Republicans with a spine, then there is some hope that a 20% cut would be watered down significantly, if not mitigated altogether. If that happens, then we have another route to salvation.

The fact that Trump's healthcare plan is currently floundering is indicative that not all Republicans are willing to go along with whatever he can concoct, so that is a good omen.
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
Hopefully you are right @Cheesus . Maybe this is an attempt at negotiations by Trump, perhaps it'll end up as "support Trumpcare and I won't call for these funding cuts", that wouldn't surprise me.
Make an extreme demand. Negotiate. Agree on a decreased demand, or force through an alternative that you wanted but were not sure you were going to get. Then claim you are the good guy in all this.
 
Trump’s budget proposal, which is slim on details, is just a blueprint; the details will be negotiated with Congress, and top Republicans have already made clear that they’re not on board with all the cuts. Just this month, Representative Tom Cole, who chairs a key appropriations committee, told STAT he hoped to boost NIH funding by as much as $2 billion this year. (The agency got its first significant budget hike in years, of $2 billion, in late 2015.)

And within hours of the blueprint’s release, Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who has also called for increasing NIH spending, issued a statement calling the president’s plan just the “first step” in a long a process. “There are many concerns with non-defense discretionary cuts,” Blunt said.
https://www.statnews.com/2017/03/16/trump-budget-science-research/
 

eljefe19

Senior Member
Messages
483
"We have concerns" is probably the most you're going to get out of the republicans for now.
 

Cheesus

Senior Member
Messages
1,292
Location
UK
Speaking as a man whose forebears have passed along a genetic poison chalice of hereditary baldness in later life, I would be happy to forfeit funding for research into male pattern baldness to save funding for ME.

The sacrifices we make for this disease...