In response to a request from Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (MD-D), the heads of Health and Human Services (HHS) and NSF have sent letters to Mikulski on how sequestration would affect their agencies. The letters are posted on the Senate Appropriations Commitee website. In her letter, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius writes:
Cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) due to sequestration would delay progress on the prevention of debilitating chronic conditions that are also costly to society and on the development of more effective treatments for common and rare diseases affecting millions of Americans. In general, NIH grant funding within states, including Maryland, will likely be reduced due to both reductions to existing grants and fewer new grants. We expect that some existing research projects could be difficult to pursue at reduced levels and some new research could be postponed as NIH would make hundreds fewer awards. Actual funding reductions will depend on the final mix ofprojects chosen to be supported by each Institute and Center within available resources. With each research award supporting up to seven research positions, several thousand research positions across the nation could be eliminated.
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