National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya faced critical questions from both Republican and Democratic senators Tuesday as he sought to defend the Trump administration’s sweeping plans to reorganize the agency and slash budgets for medical research.

Senators pressed NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, on proposed budget cuts that could impact the agency's pivotal research and the global standing of the American research enterprise. NIH's discretionary budget is proposed to be $27.