Watch: Senate holds confirmation hearing on Trump’s nominee for NIH director
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, President Trump’s pick for the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will testify Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee in a confirmation hearing.
Bhattacharya, most recently a professor at Stanford University, is looking to lead an agency with a budget of more than $47 billion that oversees clinical trials, backs efforts to develop medicine and provides grants to researchers, amid other functions.
The hearing comes NIH funding has been under the microscope amid efforts by Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) to overhaul the federal workforce. In February, the agency lost two key staff members who cited cuts to research funds.
A federal judge has since issued a temporary block to the Trump administration’s slashing of NIH funding that many scientists said could endanger patients and delay new lifesaving studies.
The event is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EST.
Watch the live video above.
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