Ann Romney: I’ll be the first to lobby against Trump’s cuts to NIH

Ann Romney voiced her opposition Tuesday to cutting funds for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“I will be the first one down lobbying against this if someone will sign me up for that,” Romney said during an interview with Yahoo News.

Romney, who is living with multiple sclerosis, said it’s important that NIH continue receiving funding so that progress can be made and people can eventually be treated using new research.

“Nothing comes from nothing. If you don’t have that funding, there will be nothing,” she said.

“There will be no new treatments, there will be no new drug therapies. Progress in medicine will come to a halt.”

Romney said she doesn’t believe members of Congress think funding that goes to NIH is wasted spending.

“I’m not sure it would be such a hard sell for me to go to Congress and say do not defund NIH, because I’m sure a lot of those people will understand how significant that funding is,” she said.

“But people just need to be educated on it and understand that if we are going to be leading with advancements in science and in helping people break through with these horrific diseases…then NIH is absolutely critical to making that happen.”

The president’s proposed federal budget cuts nearly $6 billion from NIH. The Trump plan proposes a “major reorganization” of the institutes and centers at NIH to “help focus resources on the highest priority research and training activities.”