Earlier this morning, the nomination of Monica Bertagnolli to head the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee by a bipartisan vote of 15 to 6. Bertagnolli, the current director of the National Cancer Institute, was nominated by President Biden earlier this year to take over the NIH, which has not had a permanent head since the retirement of Francis Collins.
Category: Health/Medical
President Biden Announces Intent to Nominate Dr. Bertagnolli as NIH Director
President Biden announced today his intent to nominate Dr. Monica Bertagnolli as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Dr. Bertagnolli is currently the Director of the National Cancer Institute and was previously the Richard E. Wilson Professor of Surgery in the field of surgical oncology at Harvard Medical School, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a member of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Treatment and Sarcoma Centers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Read more about Dr. Bertagnolli and President Biden’s statement here.
House Passes FY2020 Appropriations Measures
The House passed two spending packages of nearly $1.4 trillion to fund federal agencies through FY20. The current federal funding continuing resolution expires at midnight Friday.
The Senate is expected to clear the pair of bills for President Donald Trump’s signature later this week.
The bipartisan agreement provides $49 billion in extra funding across the government and includes sweeping policy provisions, including to raise the legal age of tobacco purchases to 21, reauthorize PCORI, extend the Ex-IM bank for seven years, and repeal of several health taxes in Obamacare.