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NIH UPDATE
On December 21, 2005, the Senate approved by voice vote
the FY 2006 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill that
included a less than 1% increase of $253 million for the
NIH -- a funding increase that falls below the medical
inflation index. The same bill had already passed the
house a week earlier by a vote of 215-213. In addition,
the House and Senate both passed a FY 2006 defense
spending bill (H.R. 2863) that included a 1 percent
across-the-board cut for all discretionary programs
(except for Department of Veterans Affairs programs).
These two measures combined now mean that NIH funding will
be cut for the first time in 35 years. As we noted in a
policy alert (click here) sent out electronically in late
November of 2005, funding cuts at NIH will likely lead to
delays and setbacks in high priority programs that hold
tremendous hope for developing better tools for the
prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer.
By all indications, the 2006 budget and
appropriations climate will be even more challenging
as the NIH will likely be facing cuts of even greater
magnitude. Advocates across the country who care about
the urgent need for continued scientific progress in
cancer research must be more proactive in 2006 and beyond
about voicing our support for the strongest possible
federal funding for biomedical research.
Earlier in the year, the Senate had passed a version of
the Labor-HHS appropriations bill that called for a 3.7%
increase of roughly $1 billion for the NIH. However, the
version passed by the House and supported by the President
only allowed for about a 1% increase. When the bill went
into conference, the House’s NIH figure prevailed.
But, when the Labor-HHS appropriations bill was reported
out of conference and came back up for a vote in the House
on November 17th, it was defeated by a vote of
209-222. Instead of bringing the Labor-HHS spending bill
to the Senate floor, the Senate passed a motion introduced
by Senator Durbin (D-IL) that instructed the bill’s
conferees to restore the Senate’s original NIH increase of
around $1 billion or 3.7%. The leadership in the House
agreed to return to conference on the Labor-HHS spending
bill (HR 3010) and the conferees were able to achieve some
minor modifications that allowed for passage in both the
House and Senate without changing the less than 1%
increase for NIH funding.
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