National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya promised a House Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday that, despite the sluggish pace of grant awardsthe agency will spend its full budget by the end of the 2026 fiscal year.
Roughly halfway through the fiscal year, the agency has awarded 74% fewer competitive, or new, awards than the average for that same period during 2021-2024, according to an analysis by Johns Hopkins researchers.
That lag has raised concerns that the NIH would have to return unused funds to the treasury at the end of the year. But Bhattacharya said on multiple occasions during an oversight hearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies that the agency will fully spend its $48.7 billion budget.
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