1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

I am writing because I am horrified by the Trump Administration’s cuts to the NIH and proposed cuts to the 2026 fiscal year budget. These cuts are a major attack on our nation’s scientific medical research program, which has been, until now, one of the best in the world. I have worked in clinical research for most of my 20 year career supporting the NIH as a government employee and contractor. I am currently working in grants management as a contractor for the NIH. It is so upsetting to see career staff having to take early retirement to try and save their fellow coworkers. It is devastating to see all the grants being cut or terminated early because they include DEI language or they have been targeted by the Trump administration. I fear for my job as a government contractor every day because so many contracts are being terminated. Career scientists are being fired as retribution, or for no reason at all. NIH staff is not allowed to communicate with scientists at funded institutions. Our ability to do cutting-edge medical research is under major threat. If career scientists and NIH staff leave now that will be decades of experience that we can never get back. Please do not allow DOGE to continue dismantling the NIH. Funding science has always been a non-partisan endeavor; the refusal to fund it is just unthinkable. Congress needs to get this funding restored now, please! Please protect the NIH. Our lives depend on it.