On July 17, House Oversight Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) sent a letter to HHS Secretary Alex M. Azar asking for all meeting records that pertain to the White House decision last month that effectively stops the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from funding any new research using fetal tissue, reversing a practice that has been around for decades.
“The Department’s decision, which appears to have been made with no evidence of improper actions by researchers, threatens to interfere with important biomedical research and have long-term consequences,” Cummings and Murray wrote. “The Department’s decision also reflects this Administration’s continued prioritization of ideology over the critical work of the research community and at the expense of scientific advancement.”
The Cummings-Murray pairing is important because Cummings holds one of three House positions authorized to issue subpoenas without a committee vote or consultation with the ranking member. Murray is arguably the Senate’s most important Democrat on biomedical research policy. She is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; she is also the top Democrat on the Senate panel that oversees medical research spending.
Their letter adds to the growing body of opposition from Democrats. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) and more than 30 other House Democrats sent a similar letter a few weeks ago. The House also voted June 13 to block the policy as part of a fiscal year 2020 minibus spending bill that includes HHS funding. The Senate has yet to take up any 2020 appropriations bills.
Ban on New Research
NIH funded about $115 million in research using fetal tissue in fiscal year 2018. The fetal tissue research policy announced last month prohibits the use of fetal tissue by any scientists who are direct employees of the department, known as intramural researchers. The HHS also said it will not renew any existing contracts with outside institutions.
The HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The policy allows outside scientists, whose research grants account for the bulk of NIH’s $39 billion annual budget, to continue with their current work until those grants expire. New applications from those outside scientists who propose to use fetal tissue from elective abortions and have been recommended by NIH peer reviewers for potential funding would then need approval by an ethics board. But it is unclear who would be on that board or who would select its members.
The White House ban is a win for abortion opponents like the Susan B. Anthony List, whose president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, has called studies using fetal tissue “grisly, unethical experiments.” However, groups like the International Society for Stem Cell Research opposed the decision, arguing it will block potentially life-saving research for ideological reasons and upend what has been standard practice in biomedical research for decades.
Read more in the letter from Rep. Cummings and Sen. Murray and in the letter from House Democrats.
Selected information in the "Pharmaceutical Science Update" is compiled from summaries and articles from Bloomberg BNA.