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NHGRI, NCI Would Benefit from NIH's $1B Bump in FY2011

By a GenomeWeb staff reporter

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The National Human Genome Research Institute would receive $534 million under the White House's proposed $32.2 billion budget for the National Institutes of Health, should the 2011 Department of Health and Human Services appropriation pass as it is.

That amount would represent an increase of $18 million, or around 3.4 percent, for NHGRI over the 2010 appropriation — meaning that the institute was exempted from the Obama Administration's plan to put a freeze on much of discretionary funding for domestic expenses in 2011.

NIH's overall budget would not face the scalpel that the Administration has said it is taking to the Federal Budget. Its increase of $1 billion over 2010 places it even with the expected increase in the rate of biomedical inflation, which HHS estimates to be around 3 percent for 2010.

According to the HHS budget plan for 2011, NHGRI's total budget of $502 million for 2009 was bolstered by a windfall of $127 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Its budget for 2010 is $516 million.

If the appropriation passes as is, the National Cancer Institute would see next year's budget rise to $5.26 billion, a boost of $163 million over the $5.1 billion it is receiving in 2010. NCI reaped $1.26 billion in stimulus cash in 2009.

Under the 2011 proposal, the budget for the National Center for Research Resources would increase $40 million to $1.31 billion. NCRR received $1.61 billion in ARRA funding last year.

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering would be slated to increase by $10 million in 2011 to $326 million, compared with $316 million in 2010, according to the budget. NIBB reeled in $78 million in stimulus funding last year.

The Office of the Director of NIH would receive $1.22 billion after having received $1.18 billion in 2010. In 2009, the OD received $1.34 billion in ARRA funds.

HHS also has asked for $6.9 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an increase of $86 million over its 2010 funding. CDC received $300 million in stimulus funding in 2009.

The CDC's initiatives to promote health and prevent chronic disease are marked for $1.1 billion in the budget, with $937 million of that to be divvied between genomics, chronic disease prevention, and health promotion programs.

For the Food and Drug Administration, HHS is seeking $4 billion, a jump of 23 percent, or $748 million over 2010.

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