Thune, John

Senate · South Dakota · Rank #186 of 621

Score

-$7.3T

Voting record

Budget votes.

At 929 dollars per patient, the military dollars this office backed could have funded pragmatic trials for about 7.8B patients.

Military $ Backed

$7.3T

Bills this office backed that expand military spending

Clinical Trials $

$6B

Bills this office backed that include clinical trial funding

Military : Medicine

1,166:1

Higher means more military than medicine

Score

-$7.3T

Clinical-trial funding voted for, minus military spending voted for.

Military spending voted for

$7.3T

Clinical-trial funding voted for

$6B

Counted as 3.3% of NIH funding, the share NIH spends on clinical trials

Military-to-trials ratio

1,166:1

Federal budget as a whole: 1,112:1

Spending Scale (vs All Politicians)

Military spending$7.3T

Clinical-trial funding$6B

Both bars use the same scale. Clinical-trial funding is 0.09% of the military spending

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Thune, John voted for $7.3T in military spending and $6B in clinical-trial funding. https://optimitron.com/governments/US/politicians/T000250

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Vote Record

Voted YEA

NDAA FY2023 ($858B)$858B

Omnibus FY2023 — Military ($858B)$858B

Omnibus FY2023 — NIH ($47.5B)$48B

NDAA FY2024 ($886B)$886B

Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan Supplemental ($95B)$95B

Omnibus FY2024 — Military ($886B)$886B

Omnibus FY2024 — NIH ($47.3B)$47B

NDAA FY2025 ($895B)$895B

Full-Year CR FY2025 — Military ($892.5B)$893B

Full-Year CR FY2025 — NIH ($47.0B)$47B

Reconciliation 2025 (H.R. 1) — Military ($156.2B)$156B

NDAA FY2026 ($900.6B)$901B

MilCon FY2026 (H.R. 5371) — Military ($19.7B)$20B

Omnibus FY2026 — Military ($838.7B)$839B

Omnibus FY2026 — NIH ($47.5B)$48B

How We Calculate

Military $

Military $ = Σ (bill amount for each YEA vote on NDAA, supplementals, or omnibus military portion)

NDAA and supplementals count at face value. Omnibus bills count only the military appropriation (~$858–886B/yr).

Clinical Trials $

Trials $ = NIH budget × 0.033

Only 3.3% of the NIH budget funds clinical trials ($1.56B of $47.3B). The other 96.7% is basic research, overhead, and administration. Source: JAMA.

Score

Score = Clinical Trials $ − Military $

Positive = net investment in medicine. Negative = net investment in military. Everyone is negative.

Ratio

Ratio = Military $ ÷ Clinical Trials $

Higher means more military spending per dollar of clinical-trial funding. ∞ means the politician voted for military spending but for no bill with clinical-trial funding.

The Maths

Thune, John voted for $1,166 in military spending for every $1 of clinical-trial funding. The federal budget as a whole spends 1,112:1.

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Vote Record

How We Calculate

Military $

Military $ = Σ (bill amount for each YEA vote on NDAA, supplementals, or omnibus military portion)

NDAA and supplementals count at face value. Omnibus bills count only the military appropriation (~$858–886B/yr).

Clinical Trials $

Trials $ = NIH budget × 0.033

Only 3.3% of the NIH budget funds clinical trials ($1.56B of $47.3B). The other 96.7% is basic research, overhead, and administration. Source: JAMA.

Score

Score = Clinical Trials $ − Military $

Positive = net investment in medicine. Negative = net investment in military. Everyone is negative.

Ratio

Ratio = Military $ ÷ Clinical Trials $

Higher means more military spending per dollar of clinical-trial funding. ∞ means the politician voted for military spending but for no bill with clinical-trial funding.