Senator Scott Wiener pushes for a state-run research agency to counter federal cuts and ensure vaccine access.
Summary:
California State Senator Scott Wiener has introduced a bill to establish a state-run version of the National Institutes of Health, aiming to fund scientific research and expand vaccine access amid potential federal cuts under the Trump administration. The proposed California Institute for Scientific Research would provide grants and loans to support biomedicine, climate change, and drug safety research, countering reductions from the federal level. The bill also directs the state’s CalRX program to strengthen vaccine production and procurement. This initiative mirrors California’s previous independent public health actions during Trump’s first term but faces financial challenges given the state’s budget constraints.
Full Story:
An ambitious California Democrat wants the world’s fifth-largest economy to create its own National Institutes of Health and vaccine program, saying the state can’t rely on the Trump administration to support research and science.
A bill introduced in the California Senate on Thursday, shared first with POLITICO, would create a new state agency to fund the scientific research being slashed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency as well as bolster the vaccine access being questioned by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“California is a global leader on science in our own right, and we must step in to protect our scientific institutions from the new Administration’s anti-science, Make America Sick Again onslaught,” the bill’s author, San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener, said in a statement announcing his proposal.
“For California to thrive, we must defend science,” Wiener said.
The move comes as California and other states gird for potentially massive cuts to health care and scientific research coming from Washington, and as a growing measles outbreak throws the administration’s position on vaccines into question.
President Donald Trump has already tried to slash $4 billion in NIH research grants, an effort which is currently tied up in court. Meanwhile, Kennedy has been raising concerns among other public health officials by promoting supplements like cod liver oil along with offering tepid directives for people to get vaccinated in response to the deadly measles outbreak that began in Texas.
Wiener’s bill is also reminiscent of how California behaved during the first Trump administration, when Gov. Gavin Newsom moved to independently review Covid-19 vaccines amid public distrust of White House policies.
“As Trump, Musk, and RFK Jr. tear apart federal science leadership, California must step up for science,” said Wiener, who’s widely believed to have his eyes on Nancy Pelosi’s House seat. “California must lead.”
With Wiener’s bill, California could step in to fill both of those gaps. His proposal would create a new state agency — the California Institute for Scientific Research — that would provide grants and loans in several areas being targeted for cuts by Trump and Musk, including research in biomedicine, climate change, weather and drug safety.
It also directs California’s existing prescription drug manufacturing and procurement program, called CalRX, to start working on vaccine access.
California’s local public health departments already order thousands of doses of different vaccines every year through a central state procurement system called myCAvax, and it funds millions of dollars of research through the state’s public colleges and universities.
But as Wiener’s office points out, much of the research being done at California institutions is federally funded, and if that money goes away, his bill would provide a way to backfill it. The proposal envisions grants targeted primarily to the research being cut at the federal level and disbursed to California-based companies, schools and nonprofits or out-of-state researchers collaborating with California scientists.
And if federal support for vaccine production also wanes, the bill would direct CalRX to contract with manufacturers to purchase or produce its own label of vaccines, the way it’s currently doing to support naloxone access in combating opioid overdoses.
During the last Trump administration, Newsom formed his own scientific advisory committee with the Democratic governors of other Western states — including Colorado, Oregon, Nevada and Washington state — to review the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines. They also agreed to review the science behind vaccine recommendations and stay-at-home orders themselves instead of relying on Trump.
The bill is likely to face pushback from the state’s Republican minority, but the real uphill battle will come when there’s a price tag attached to the proposal: The state is already grappling with proposed budget cuts in certain areas, as well as a shortfall for the state Medicaid program. Politico
