Rep. Brown, Sens. Brown and Portman, Ohio Colleagues Urge Administration to Consider Cleveland as Home for New Moonshot Science Agency

WASHINGTON – Today, Rep. Shontel M. Brown (OH-11) and Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) led a bipartisan group of their Ohio colleagues in sending a letter to President Joe Biden and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra urging them to consider Cleveland as the home for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The new moonshot science agency, proposed by President Biden and funded by Congress in the fiscal year (FY) 2022 spending bill, will drive breakthroughs in cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and other diseases.

“[Cleveland] has a vibrant health care sector replete with world-class, integrated health systems; top-tier institutions of higher education; and hundreds of groundbreaking biomedical companies,” the Members wrote. “Coupled with a supportive and collaborative business community and highly-skilled manufacturing workforce, Northeast Ohio is a natural location to support the next generation of discovery, innovation, and production in the health sciences and drive breakthroughs in health care research and development.”

Pointing to the city’s Health-Tech Corridor, which has generated $4 billion in investment over the past 15 years, the Members continued, “From private investment from companies like IBM, which will establish its first private-sector quantum computer in the country in Cleveland to accelerate discovery in healthcare and life sciences, to public investment from federal entities like NASA Glenn Research Center and the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland would be a premier location to build out the work of ARPA-H to foster bolder, more rapid research and innovation and translate that work into ‘use driven’ solutions for Americans.”

In addition to the Health-Tech corridor and Cleveland Innovation District, the Members noted that Cleveland is surrounded by world-class hospitals, including Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals Health System, and the MetroHealth System, as well as top-notch institutions of higher education, including Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and Cleveland State University, that can train and foster the next generation of scientific and health care innovators.

Along with Rep. Brown and Senators Brown and Portman, the letter was signed by Reps. Joyce Beatty (OH-03), Bob Latta (OH-05), Bill Johnson (OH-06), Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Tim Ryan (OH-13), Dave Joyce (OH-14), Mike Carey (OH-15), and Anthony Gonzalez (OH-16).

For the text of the letter, click here.

For additional information on the City of Cleveland’s qualifications to be home to ARPA-H, click here.

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