President Trump has asked National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins to continue running the country’s premier medical research agency.
Collins, who has headed NIH since 2009, had been serving as acting NIH director during the presidential transition.
Honored to be selected by @POTUS to continue as #NIH Director. I consider it a privilege to continue to lead this noble enterprise.
— Francis S. Collins (@NIHDirector) June 6, 2017
Collins will continue to helm an agency that has been targeted by the Trump administration for steep budget cuts. The White House’s proposed budget seeks to cut the research agency’s budget by $8 billion next year.
But the agency has bipartisan allies on Capitol Hill, and the proposal doesn’t appear to have much chance.
