U.S Senators Tammy Baldwin and Peter Welch led a forum on how the Trump Administration’s funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) may affect the future of research on Wednesday March 26th.

The forum including several U.S senators, researchers, and the former director of the NIH.

Sen. Baldwin expressed concern about how cuts could potentially impact the future of research into chronic diseases.

“We can all agree that government should be more efficient, but here’s where I disagree with Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Cures for Alzheimer’s disease and cancer are not waste or fraud or abuse,” said Sen. Tamy Baldwin. “President Trump and Elon Musk’s Doge are callously ripping away treatments and cures from millions of Americans suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, cancer and other devastating diseases, and we are here today to sound the alarm. “

Former Director of the NIH, Dr. Monica Bertagnolli spoke about cuts and delays in funding to researchers already happening.

“I resigned my post as NIH Director in January of this year. Since then, I have had no insight into how decisions are being made by our current leaders at HHS. I can speak, however, about the downstream effects of their decisions, and some irreparable damage that their policies are producing,” said Dr. Monica Bertagnolli. “To date more than 300 grants terminated and about $1.5 billion in funding delays and barriers that are preventing NIH’s role of ensuring that funding is delivered to outstanding researchers across the nation,”

Minnesota Senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar were among those in attendance.

You can watch the full recording of the forum here.