Group Letter on NIH Salary
Cap to Reps. Regula and Obey and Senators Harkin and Specter
June 26, 2001
The Honorable Ralph Regula
Chairman
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services,
Education, and Related Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
2306 Rayburn House Office Building
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Mr. Chairman:
The undersigned organizations and institutions, which represent
the nation's leading medical schools, teaching hospitals,
universities, research institutes, and scientists, thank you
for your continued support of the National Institutes of Health.
The nation's future health will benefit from the efforts Congress
has led to double the NIH budget. As you begin to consider
the Fiscal Year 2002 Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, we bring
to your attention an issue of particular importance that was
addressed in last year's bill. Specifically, we urge you to
retain the provision from last year's bill that raised the
salary cap imposed on extramural NIH researchers to Level
I of the Executive pay scale, which equals $161,200 in FY
2001. Congress recognized the importance of this issue when
it increased the cap to Executive Level I in last year's bill,
which we very much appreciate.
As Congress continues to move toward the goal of doubling
the NIH budget, it is essential that we involve the best and
brightest minds in the nation's medical research enterprise.
It is especially critical that this effort include the increased
participation of physician-scientists to address the high
national priority, affirmed by the Congress, of strengthening
clinical research.
The extramural salary cap disproportionately affects physician
investigators and serves as a deterrent to their recruitment
into research careers. Since the Federal government imposed
the salary cap on extramural researchers in 1990, medical
schools, universities and other research institutions have
been increasingly forced to bear more of the costs of physician-scientists'
(and other investigators') salaries. Unfortunately, this comes
at a time when discretionary funds from clinical revenues
and other sources traditionally available to cover these costs
continue to shrink. Retaining the extramural salary cap at
Executive Level I will allow our institutions to continue
to attract and retain the best investigators in our research
programs.
In addition, maintaining the salary cap at Executive Level
I will restore a level playing field between extramural investigators
and intramural NIH scientists who are eligible for Executive
Level I salaries under the Senior Biomedical Research Service
(SBRS).
We urge you to maintain the salary cap at the Executive Level
I when you consider the FY 2002 L/HHS appropriation.
Sincerely,
Academic Orthopaedic Society
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
American Neurological Association
American Pediatric Society
American Physiological Society
American Society for Bone and Mineral Research
American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Association of Academic Physiatrists
Association of American Medical Colleges
Association of American Universities
Association of Independent Research Institutes
Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs
Association of Medical School Psychologists
Association of Professors of Medicine
Association of Subspecialty Professors
Baylor College of Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Boston University School of Medicine
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Columbia Health Sciences
Columbia University
Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals
Creighton University
Duke University Medical Center and Health System
Emory University
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Harvard Medical School
Johns Hopkins Medicine
The Johns Hopkins University
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Medical College of Wisconsin
Meharry Medical College
Michigan State University
Mount Sinai Hospital
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant
Colleges
National Osteoporosis Foundation
New England Medical Center
New York University School of Medicine
The Ohio State University
Partners HealthCare System
Pennsylvania State University
Society for Neuroscience
Society for Pediatric Research
Stanford University
Syracuse University
Tufts University School of Medicine
University of California
University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco
University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
University of Chicago
University of Cincinnati
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center School of Medicine
University of Florida
University of Florida College of Medicine
University of Illinois
University of Iowa
University of Michigan
University of Michigan Health System
University of Minnesota
University of Missouri Health Care
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
University of Rochester Medical Center
University of Southern California
University of Tennessee Health Science Center
University of Virginia School of Medicine
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin-Madison
UPMC Health System
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Washington University in St. Louis
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Yale University
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