Barragán-Carter Bill to Fund Research of Minority Health Disparities Passes the House

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House passed a bill Nov. 17, by Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.) and Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter (R-Ga.) to increase investments in schools conducting critical research into minority health disparities.

The NIMHD Research Endowment Revitalization Act would allow the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities or NIMHD to resume providing grants for critical research into minority health disparities. The Research Endowment Program at NIMHD provides funding to the endowments of academic institutions across the country, such as Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in California’s 44^th Congressional District.

The goals of  NIMHD’s Research Endowment Program include:

Promoting minority health and health disparities research capacity and infrastructure;

Increasing the diversity and strength of the scientific workforce; and

Enhancing the recruitment and retention of individuals from health disparity populations that are underrepresented in the scientific workforce.

Because of funding shortfalls, those endowment grants began to slow and schools that had received NIMHD grants for 10 years were no longer eligible. As a result, the critical research being done at these institutions was being underfunded. This bill allows those schools to resume their eligibility.