Support Emergency Relief Funding for America’s Research Enterprise
The pandemic has severely impacted America’s research
pipeline. Many research laboratories have shut down due to the pandemic, resulting
in students and research staff losing both their jobs and valuable research
progress. In addition to annual funding for the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), emergency supplemental funding is critical to ensure our biomedical
research enterprise and clinical trials networks can recover from disruptions
caused by COVID-19.
Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), and
Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO-1) and Fred Upton (R-MI-6), have introduced
the Research Investment to Spark the Economy (RISE) Act, S. 289/H.R. 869. This
important legislation will provide emergency funding for federal science
agencies, and will:
- Recommend nearly $25 billion be allocated to federal science agencies, including $10 billion is for the NIH and $3 billion for the National Science Foundation (NSF), in addition to funding for several other agencies
- Authorizes grants to be issued supporting research on the behavioral, social, or economic effects of COVID-19 and responses to the disease
- Extends grant flexibilities issued by the Office of Management and Budget to continue until labs can safely reopen
- Allows funds offered under this proposal to be used to support graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and principal investigators to complete work that has been disrupted due to COVID-19
- Allows the funds to be used to replace certain lab equipment, reconfigure laboratories to safely resume research, and cover increased construction costs resulting from the disruption from COVID-19
Advocacy for passage of this legislation is crucial as Congress
continues work on COVID-19 relief legislation. Please take a moment and ask
your lawmakers to cosponsor this important legislation! If you have a personal
story about how this crisis has impacted your research, we encourage you to
customize the letter by including it.