June 29, 2001

AAMC Urges Congress To Retain NIH Salary Cap At Higher Level

On June 26, the AAMC, along with nearly 80 other scientific organizations and institutions, sent a letter to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittees, urging them to keep the cap on NIH salaries at Executive Level I.

The cap, which has been inserted into every Labor-HHS appropriations bill since FY 1990, prohibits the use of NIH funds to pay the salary of an individual, through a grant or other extramural mechanism, at a rate in excess of amount of the cap. The FY 2001 Labor-HHS appropriations conference agreement raised the salary cap to Executive Level I ($161,200 in 2001). President Bush's FY 2002 budget proposes to reduce the salary cap to Executive Level II (currently $145,100).

The letter states, "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 letter continues, "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."

Information: Dave Moore, AAMC Office of Governmental Relations, 202-828-0525.