Congresswoman Simon Visits UC Berkeley Lab with Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Ted Lieu and Opposes Attacks to NIH Funding
OAKLAND, CA – On Friday, Congresswoman Lateefah Simon (D-CA-12) was joined by Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Ted Lieu (D-CA-36) and toured the Innovative Genomics Institute at the University of California, Berkeley and convened a roundtable of scientists to oppose attacks to critical research funding.
At the roundtable, Congresswoman Simon highlighted how cuts in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding will impact the groundbreaking and life-saving research being done right here in California’s 12th Congressional District and impact countless lives across the nation.
“The East Bay is home to some of the world’s best scientists, researchers, and innovators. The University of California, Berkeley’s legacy of pioneering research is quite literally etched into the Periodic Table. President Trump’s cuts to NIH funding will stop important work that prevents the next pandemic or deadly disease, advances our place in the global scientific race, and quite literally – saves lives. Congresswoman Simon said, “I am a widow because I lost my husband to cancer. I do not want more families to lose loved ones because the President Trump is not willing to invest in research under the guise of ‘efficiency.’ It is despicable.”
In Congress, Congresswoman Simon joined her colleagues in sending two letters to the Trump Administration relaying concerns about President Trump’s proposed 15% cap across the board for indirect research costs for all NIH grants and the deadly impacts these cuts will have on the research community across California and America.
The Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) is run by Dr. Jennifer A. Doudna, a Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and of Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley who earned the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her development of CRISPR-Cas9.
The University of California Berkeley and Lawrence National Lab received over 350 awards totaling an amount over $250,000,000 in federal funds from NIH for FY2024 on projects spanning from research in public health to the biosciences.
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