NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The US Senate late last week passed a resolution that would add $2.1 billion to the White House’s proposed National Institutes of Health budget for 2009.
Senators Arlen Specter (R – Pa.) and Tom Harkin (D – Iowa) added the extra funds to the President’s proposed $29.5 billion through an amendment to a budget resolution that will set the limits on the spending frame for upcoming debate on the 2009 budget.
The budget resolution will “set a blueprint for how Congress will identify its priorities; how much here and how much there,” Dave Moore, senior VP of the Association of American Medical College’s office of government affairs,” told GenomeWeb Daily News last week.
“The funding for the National Institutes of Health is grossly insufficient,” Specter said in a statement. “This increase in funding will enable the National Institutes of Health to continue to produce remarkable achievements in scientific advances,” he added.
“Boosting our nation's investment in the NIH will ensure the nation's top scientists can continue to deliver the life-saving biomedical research that provides hope to millions of Americans," Sen. Harkin, who chairs the committee that handles appropriations for the NIH and a number of other agencies, said in a statement.
The amendment passed the Senate by a vote of 95 to 4, although the budget resolution itself passed by a smaller margin of 51 to 44.