This week, picking up where we left off in Episode 143: “We have a friend,” Christy throws in her emotional thinking on the topic.

Toward the end, Christy urges voters to think about how elected officials vote on funding research at NIH and what that means:

On December 17, 2019, the House passed H.R. 1865, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, by a vote of 297-120. On December 19, 2019, the Senate passed H.R. 1865 by a vote of 71-23….

Of note, the bill provides $41.7 billion for medical research at the NIH, a nearly seven percent increase over FY 2019 funding. This funding for the NIH includes an extra $350 million for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD) research, bringing the NIH’s total AD/ADRD funding to $2.8 billion. (Source: September 2020 Director’s Status Report)

$2.8 bn is a huge chunk of change. For context, though, “the FY 2020 Department of Health and Human Services Appropriations Act and the 21st Century Cures Act allocated $6.44 billion to NCI (National Cancer Institute), a $297 million net increase over the FY 2019 enacted regular and Cancer Moonshot appropriations.” (Source: NIH/NCI)

(37 minutes)