AADR and FNIDCR Oppose President’s FY18 Budget

AADR and FNIDCR Oppose President’s FY18 Budget 

Alexandria, Va., USA – The American Association for Dental Research and the Friends of National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research issued the following statement on President Trump’s FY18 budget by the Association’s Executive Director Christopher H. Fox, DMD DMSc. 

The American Association for Dental Research (AADR) and the Friends of National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (FNIDCR) strongly oppose the President’s fiscal year 2018 budget request. In particular, we reject the President’s proposal to cut $5.8 billion of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – an unprecedented 20% reduction from the FY 2016 enacted budget – and urge Congress to do the same. NIH has always enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Congress, as witnessed by the overwhelming approval of the 21st Century Cures Act last year, and Congress has never entertained such a draconian cut to the crown jewel of the Federal Government. Further, AADR and FNIDCR reject the request for a major reorganization of NIH’s Institutes and Centers as a needless exercise that will divert attention from the NIH’s core mission of uncovering new knowledge that will lead to better health for everyone. 

This proposal sets a dangerous precedent and will undoubtedly slow progress toward life-saving cures and more effective treatments. 

Dentists, researchers, students and the American public rely on the research funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). NIDCR was created during World War II to improve the oral health of American soldiers deployed overseas. The defense of our nation is inextricably linked to the health of our population. We remain steadfastly committed to our support for NIDCR and the unique, vital and innovative role it plays in funding research to create less invasive, cost effective and more efficient ways to improve oral health and lessen the economic burden dental, oral and craniofacial diseases and conditions place on Americans. 

We look forward to working with Congress on a bi-partisan basis to support increased funding for all of the Institutes and Centers at NIH, including NIDCR, and reject any proposals to cut or reorganize NIH. We also will encourage them to honor the long-standing tradition of allocating resources to the entire biomedical research enterprise at NIH, recognizing that a discovery in one area of research may be applied to another. Maintaining flexibility, honoring the scientific peer-review process and supporting all research is critical to our endeavor to bring cures to Americans. 

About the American Association for Dental Research  

The American Association for Dental Research (AADR) is a nonprofit organization with nearly 3,500 individual members dedicated to: (1) advancing research and increasing knowledge for the improvement of oral health, (2) supporting and representing the oral health research community, and (3) facilitating the communication and application of research findings. AADR is the largest Division of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR). To learn more, visit aadr.org.