Recently, many hasty decisions have been made in the name of increasing efficiency. While these decisions are having systemic effects across a growing number of federal agencies, I want to draw your attention to the impact on just one federal agency: the National Institutes of Health.

No doubt, inefficiencies could be identified and remedied with careful analysis and rational implementation. But the approach being employed is neither thoughtful nor careful, and it is downright dangerous. Before mindlessly hacking away at the NIH in the name of cost saving, it is worth taking a moment to understand what we get from our financial investment in its mission, and then determining if the costs are worth the benefits.

Here in the commonwealth, these cuts will take an immediate $64 million out of our economy , with expanding ripple effects sure to deprive Virginia of additional revenue. When NIH grant funding is cut, it is not only the research endeavor that was supported by that grant that suffers. Indirect costs support largely blue-collar jobs that are needed to support the research: housekeeping, maintenance work, electrical and machine shops. All these jobs go away.

Third-party contractors are often necessary to fully deliver research goals, and there is an entire economy in contracting that is supported by NIH grants. All these jobs go away. There is also a pipeline of basic-to-applied research, known as translational research, in which fundamental discoveries about biological systems (how a chemical compound affects cell growth) are converted into practical and marketable solutions that can improve health (a new chemotherapy drug). And again, an entire economy exists in translational research with the creation of new jobs and facilities, the refinement of new technologies, and the implementation of new processes. All these jobs go away.

So, while $64 million is the immediate impact, the net negative to Virginia will be much, much greater.

Another important benefit that we receive from our investment in NIH is the training it provides to future researchers and physicians who will practice in the U.S., to the benefit of U.S. citizens. The NIH administers dozens of programs to train and support scientists at all levels of their careers so that they can deliver the highest quality, highest impact results that lead to improvements in our health and the length of our lifespans. Without a pipeline to train and support our best and brightest, where will our next-generation cancer treatments come from?

I work with undergraduate students at the very beginning of their professional careers. The loss of training and support of new and early-career scientists is a particularly hard blow that will affect all of us for years to come.

Already, students who had been accepted for early-career experience through NIH summer research internships are receiving notices that these programs have been terminated. Students who had been accepted to competitive two-year training fellowships at NIH, to prime them for biomedical research immediately after completing their baccalaureate degrees, are likewise receiving cancellation notices. And it’s not just happening at William & Mary, it’s happening across the commonwealth, at University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University and Eastern Virginia Medical School.

The internships, postbaccalaureate training programs and other foundational experiences offered by the NIH that would have set our students on paths to practicing medicine and conducting innovative medical research have all evaporated overnight. The Trump administration has decided that our students are not worth the investment, and the impact will be devastating.

Virginia’s best and brightest will not find training or employment opportunities in the domestic biomedical sector. They will either seek opportunities abroad or abandon medicine altogether, depriving our commonwealth and our country of this important pipeline. The ultimate consequence of today’s shortsightedness will be a decline in the overall quality of health and lifespan in the U.S.

It’s not that large federal agencies such as NIH cannot or should not be evaluated for program effectiveness and improved. I am sure they can, but that is not what’s happening now. The current administration is hurting you, and future generations of Americans, with this thoughtless and destructive approach. It needs to stop.