NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The National Institutes of Health will receive an extra $150 million this year after the White House and Congress agreed to a $162 billion spending bill that focused mostly on supporting war efforts.
After signing on Monday the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008, President George W. Bush said that the “bill shows the American people that even in an election year, Republicans and Democrats can come together” to support the military and to create a spending bill within “sensible limits” of the spending he hoped to see.
The support for the NIH in this law is smaller than in the Senate version that passed in May, which asked for a $400 million supplement to the NIH for 2008.
The $150 million supplement will be used for the common fund to support programs funded under the 2008 appropriation, except for the NIH Buildings and Facilities, the Center for Information Technology, the Clinical Center, the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria, or the office of the director.
The law also gives $62.5 million to supplement the National Science Foundation, with $22.5 million marked for research spending, according to Kei Koizumi, who is director of R&D budget and policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.