Late last week, the full House Republican Conference ratified Rep. Tom Cole as chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee for the remainder of the 118th Congress.

Cole, a long-time member of the committee, previously served as the top Republican on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS), which oversees funding for agencies and programs across the HHS, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Health Resources and Services Administration.

In March, the AAMC awarded Cole the Champion of Academic Medicine Award for his work to advance medical research, public health, and the health workforce.

In accepting the award at the time, he emphasized the importance of medical research and his passion for promoting access to medical education in rural, tribal and medically under-served communities. 

Cole succeeds Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) following her March announcement she would step down as chair and spend the rest of her term as chair emeritus.

Both Granger and Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) issued congratulatory statements welcoming Cole to his new role. Granger’s statement noted Cole’s previous leadership of the two largest subcommittees while DeLauro’s statement highlighted that while she and Cole led Labor-HHS, funding for the NIH increased by 58 percent.