The Senate wants to help the National Institutes of Health with all its paperwork, but funding for the research agency remains up in the air.
A group of bipartisan senators introduced a bill Thursday aimed at streamlining paperwork and other administrative requirements for NIH researchers. The goal of the bill is to ensure that scientists spend more time on research and less on paperwork.
“This legislation will help NIH eliminate this unnecessary red tape that not only wastes researchers’ time, but also wastes taxpayer dollars the agency could devote to additional multi-year grants,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
Alexander, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, cited two studies by the National Academies of Science that found research scientists spend 42 percent of their time on handling administrative tasks rather than research itself.
The heads of the academies said 10 percent would be more appropriate, Alexander added.
The bill would update and consolidate reporting requirements across NIH’s 27 institutes and centers. It also would require center directors to look at reporting requirements and eliminate any redundant requirements.
Sen. Patty Murray, of Washington, the committee’s top Democrat, said the legislation also boosts NIH’s ongoing efforts to ensure women and children are more included in research projects. Murray is a co-sponsor of the bill.
The bill is part of a major effort by the HELP committee to address medical innovation. So far the committee has pushed more than 10 bills to the Senate floor, the chamber’s answer to the 21st Century Cures Act that was passed by the House last year.
However, there remains major disagreement on NIH funding. Democrats want an additional $5 billion a year in mandatory funding for the agency.
Republicans are in favor of more funding, but want it to be labeled discretionary. Mandatory funding levels must be maintained every year, while discretionary levels can be adjusted.
Democrats worry that without a consistent funding stream, biomedical research will suffer. They point to a decade ago when Congress doubled NIH’s budget but it consistently declined over the years.
