U.S. Senator Katie Britt Discusses Maternal Mortality Rates, NIH Research Funding with Director Bhattacharya

June 11, 2025 - WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) attended a Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing with National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya to discuss the President's Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) Budget Request for the National Institutes of Health.

Senator Britt, who has made maternal care a top legislative priority, began by highlighting America's maternal mortality crisis: "[F]ar too many women in this country are dying from pregnancy-related causes. You look at Alabama, we have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation. It disproportionately affects black women, Native American women, women in rural areas."

"When you look at rural areas in Alabama, we have one-third of our state's 67 counties are actually maternal care deserts, meaning they don't have access to birthing facilities or maternal care providers ... It's 2025. These numbers should be moving in the opposite direction. I am really proud to have co-sponsored the NIH IMPROVE Act," the Senator continued.

The NIH IMPROVE Act, which Senator Britt introduced in 2024, would provide consistent support and resources for the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Implementing a Maternal Health and PRegnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone (IMPROVE) Initiative. The program conducts important research into the causes of America's maternal mortality crisis and solutions to improve health outcomes for women before, during, and after pregnancy.

"[W]e're authorizing it on a year-by-year basis. It is my thought that if we actually want change, we have to allow for predictability. So, my NIH IMPROVE Act allows for seven years of predictability. My question to you is, if that was the case and you had that, do you think that we could have better research?" Senator Britt asked.

"The answer is absolutely yes," Director Bhattacharya responded.

Senator Britt then questioned Director Bhattacharya directly on funding NIH research, saying, "I have heard my colleagues today say and indicate that you want to give up on medical research. Is that true, yes or no?" to which Director Bhattacharya responded, "No."

"When we want NIH to remain the gold standard of research, we've got to make sure that the best idea wins, right? ... We've got to make sure that people have an opportunity to compete no matter where they came from ... that we stop rewarding just legacy contracts, so to speak, and empower researchers and empower the research to go where it can save lives. Do you agree with that?" Senator Britt asked.

"Entirely," Director Bhattacharya responded. "So, how do we make sure that every dollar actually goes to discovery and not to institutional overhead?" Senator Britt asked.

"Right now, we have a system that guarantees that a very small number of universities are going to get all of the institutional support ... Essentially, the key problem now is that we require the institution to have excellent researchers in order to get the institutional support ... It's a vicious cycle because you only attract excellent researchers if you have the institutional support with the lab space and so on," Director Bhattacharya responded.

"I think we've got to create a competitive environment where the best idea wins so that the American people win," Senator Britt stated. "We've got to stop churning and churning and churning, because it's what we've always done. This is our opportunity to make a dollar go further and to make it have a greater impact."

The Senator continued, asking, "[I]f we introduce competition into this arena-which I think is a great idea and a concept that we should explore-if we introduce it into maybe the indirect cost equation, you know, how would that actually bolster, or do you think that that would break the system?"

Director Bhattacharya agreed with Senator Britt, stating, "No, I think it would actually strengthen the system because it would get support to researchers that are in non-traditional places but have excellent ideas that have a much harder time getting support from the NIH. And I think that that combats scientific groupthink, expands the base of scientific ideas, and it really addresses the critical roadblocks that we currently face."

"We certainly want to be your partner in this," Senator Britt responded. "I believe we owe it to the American people to ensure that NIH funding and every single dollar of it is driving actual innovation that achieves results, that makes an impact, that saves lives, and I look forward to continuing this conversation."