The following is an excerpt from an article that appeared published in The Scientist this morning. The article was written by Tracy Vence and can be read in its totality from http://bit.ly/2mN2HpC . A significant percentage of funding by NIH goes to autism research including enacting initiatives from its Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee and maintaining a number of Autism Centers of Excellence around the nation. The budget cuts would severely crippled research overall and autism related initiatives in particular.
“As anticipated, the Trump administration’s budget proposal includes substantial cuts at federal research agencies, including the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If approved by Congress, the budget would enact cuts of $5.8 billion at the NIH—nearly 19 percent of the agency’s current budget—and more than $2.6 billion at the EPA—around 31 percent of the agency’s current allotment.”
“A $6 billion cut to the National Institutes of Health is unacceptable to the scientific community, and should be unacceptable to the American public as well,” Benjamin Corb, director of public affairs at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, said in a statement. “President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2018 spending plan erases years’ worth of bipartisan support for the NIH, and the American biomedical research enterprise, which has long been the global leader for biomedical innovation. Cuts this deep threaten America’s ability to [remain] a leader.”