Senate Republicans push NIH on ‘woke’ DEI hiring practices

EXCLUSIVE — Senate Republicans are pressing the National Institutes of Health to provide more information on its diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring practices, which they say may worsen the looming shortage of physicians and healthcare workers.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the leading Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, sent a letter to new NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli on Tuesday inquiring about her agency’s Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation, or FIRST, program, which uses diversity statement rubrics for hiring new researchers.