Q&A on NIH Research Indirect Costs Cap: Click HERE to watch and HERE to download
Q&A on Alzheimer’s Law Implementation: Click HERE to watch and HERE to download
Washington, D.C. – Today, at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing to review the Fiscal Year 2026 budget request for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Senator Susan Collins questioned HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Her questions focused on the Department’s proposed cap on indirect costs for National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research, as well as how workforce reductions at the Department could harm the implementation of laws such as the Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Reauthorization Act, a bill Senator Collins authored that was signed into law last year.
Q&A on NIH Research Indirect Costs Cap
Senator Collins:
I chaired, recently, the first Appropriations Committee hearing of the year, and we focused on biomedical research and how important it is that America not lose its global edge in innovation that's producing life-saving and life-enhancing discoveries. Among the many issues that we covered, as you might expect, the hearing explored the 15%, arbitrary, one-size-fits-all cap that NIH has imposed on indirect, but still research-related, costs for its grants.
What we heard is that this cap will mean less basic research, fewer clinical trials, and that it will also cause our scientists and researchers to leave the United States and go to other countries. I believe strongly that this proposed cap is poorly thought out, that it's harmful, and I know that it violates current law, because since 2018 we've included in the appropriations bill specific language that prevents NIH from imposing such a cap. So, I know the system needs to be looked at, but are you reviewing how NIH's approach of this one-size-fits-all 15% cap on indirect costs would affect laboratories, whether they're private nonprofit labs, or whether they're in universities, as far as doing crucial biomedical research?
Secretary Kennedy:
Senator, we are, and you and I have talked about this issue. And I think the impetus for the cap was that there were a lot of private universities with giant endowments, like Stanford and Harvard, that were getting indirect payments of 78%. What that means, if you get a million-dollar grant, the NIH then has to pay you an extra $780,000 for administrative costs. And a lot of those costs weren't even going to anything to do with science.
But I understand the University of Maine, the University of Alabama, many other universities and state universities were not abusing it. We lost about $9 billion a year in those kinds of costs. And so, we have a plan for how to address issues like what's happening at the University of Maine.
Q&A on Alzheimer’s Law Implementation
Senator Collins:
Mr. Secretary, nearly 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease, and caring for people with this devastating chronic disease costs us some $360 billion a year. I am the author of a law that's known as the BOLD Act. It takes a public health approach to Alzheimer's, it educates providers, promotes earlier diagnosis, it helps caregivers and it also promotes lifestyle changes. I have worked very hard to make sure that HHS has the resources to carry out this law, which was just recently extended. I'm concerned that the reductions in force, of approximately 10,000 staff across HHS, will completely undermine this Act.
For example, the Healthy Aging Branch administers the BOLD Act for Alzheimer's. It has lost all of its staff. So, how can you ensure that the CDC continues to implement the BOLD Act and the Alzheimer's programs under it, when all of the staff responsible for that administration have either been placed on administrative leave or let go?
Secretary Kennedy:
I know that that division has been folded into the Agency for a Healthy America. And a lot of the reports that whole divisions have been liquidated were just wrong. They were divisions that were being reassigned under the reorg.
On that budget line, I will work with you, I'm committed. You know, Alzheimer's has run in my family, as you know. You know my cousin, Maria Shriver, who's deeply involved in it. The NIH had a very, very checkered history on studying Alzheimer's because of the amyloid plaque scandal. And we have an opportunity now to do really good science and find a cure very quickly, and also find out, equally importantly, why so many people are getting Alzheimer's in this generation. I want to make that happen. I want to work with you, Senator, to make sure that that happens and that those programs continue.
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At a recent U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee hearing chaired by Senator Susan Collins, she questioned Dr. Hermann Haller, President of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, on how the proposed NIH cap on indirect costs would affect the important biomedical research occurring in Maine and at institutions across the country.
With Senator Collins’ support, funding for the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act has grown from $10 million in fiscal year 2020 to $34 million in fiscal year 2024. In September 2020, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services received one of the first BOLD Program Awards. This investment has allowed for great progress in implementing the Maine State Plan for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias. In September 2023, Maine received a second BOLD award from the CDC for Alzheimer’s prevention programs, which provides implementation funding to build on its initial investments and allow the state to carry out the Maine Alzheimer’s Prevention Program and the CDC’s Healthy Brain Initiative Road Map.
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