an underappreciated reason NIH funding is so durable: it's less about Congress believing in science, and more about the jobs it supports in lawmakers' home states and districts. universities and academic medical centers are often among the largest local employers. a vote to cut NIH is a vote to cut jobs back home. there's a lesson here for biotech. we spend a lot of time explaining why people should be excited about what excites us (cool science, new modalities). we should spend more time making sure our success shows up in things they already care about: jobs, their communities, affordable medicines, national security. biotech's political future will depend as much on how widely it shares the benefits of innovation as on how much innovation it produces.