WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a high-stakes Senate hearing Tuesday, Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) pressed National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya over what he called a “geographic concentration” of federal funding that leaves premier Indiana research institutions behind.
During the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing, titled “Modernizing the National Institutes of Health: Faster Discoveries, More Cures,” Banks highlighted a stark disparity in how medical research dollars are distributed across the country.
Banks pointed out that while Indiana is home to three elite R1 research institutions — Indiana University, Purdue, and Notre Dame — the state’s federal support does not reflect its scientific output.
“Indiana only got about $350 million of NIH funding last year,” Banks noted. “To contrast that, the state of Massachusetts, which is virtually the same size as my state, received nearly $3 billion last year. What’s going on here?”
Banks argued that Indiana is already delivering groundbreaking results, citing IU’s Alzheimer’s research, Purdue’s work on opioid addiction and cancer-related genes, and Notre Dame’s fight against antibiotic-resistant malaria.
“Those are just a few examples of the type of important research going on in my great state to make Americans healthier,” Banks said.