ASH President Issues Statement of Support for FY 2018 Omnibus

(WASHINGTON, March 23, 2018) — This afternoon, President Trump signed a $1.3 trillion fiscal year 2018 omnibus funding package that includes $37.1 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an 8.8 percent increase for the agency, which funds and/or oversees vital medical research programs critical to advancing public health in the United States and around the world.

American Society of Hematology (ASH) President Alexis A. Thompson, MD, MPH, of the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, issued the following statement:

“For over a decade the NIH faced nearly flat funding, undermining its ability to fund thousands of meritorious medical research grants. Each of these unfunded research grants represents a potential cure that may never be discovered. As ASH’s mission is to support the researchers and physicians working to conquer blood diseases worldwide, we applaud lawmakers for greatly increasing funding for the NIH and the vital research programs that the agency supports. Furthermore, the financial support shown to the Cancer Moonshot initiative and the All of Us precision medicine initiative is encouraging, and ASH looks forward to collaborating with the NIH to ensure the success of these landmark programs. ASH looks forward to working with appropriators to reinforce this support in future funding packages.” 

The American Society of Hematology (ASH) (www.hematology.org) is the world’s largest professional society of hematologists dedicated to furthering the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting the blood. For more than 50 years, the Society has led the development of hematology as a discipline by promoting research, patient care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology. ASH publishes Blood (www.bloodjournal.org), the most cited peer-reviewed publication in the field, which is available weekly in print and online. In 2016, ASH launched Blood Advances (www.bloodadvances.org), an online, peer-reviewed open-access journal.

Contact:
Stephen Fitzmaurice, American Society of Hematology
sfitzmaurice@hematology.org ; 202-552-4927