New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici’s advocacy helped Congress approve early Department of Energy funding for the Human Genome Project.
Domenici was especially influential because he chaired both the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the Senate Budget Committee. Those positions gave him leverage over the DOE’s budget process, while his relationship with Charles DeLisi helped connect the scientific proposal to congressional decision-making.
The path to funding began after DeLisi proposed a broad genome initiative within the DOE’s Office of Health and Environmental Research. DOE reprogrammed funds to begin the effort, and the Reagan administration later included a dedicated HGP line item in its budget submission. Congress approved the proposal and added a comparable amount to the NIH budget.
Domenici is easy to confuse with other senators associated with science or health policy, but the early DOE genome-funding story specifically identifies the New Mexico senator. The project formally began in 1990 as a joint DOE-NIH effort and was completed in its original form in 2003.