More Money for NIH?

US Congressional Republicans have released the details of a proposed budget for 2012 that, if accepted, would give NIH a bit of a budget boost, report ScienceInsider's David Malakoff and Jocelyn Kaiser. The Republican leaders of the House's appropriations committee decided very early this morning to release details of a $1 trillion spending bill that is currently under negotiation in the House and Senate, Malakoff and Kaiser write. The numbers in the package aren't final, as there are still several points of contention between Republicans and Democrats. But if the bill stands as it's currently written, NIH would receive a $239 million budget increase. "That is less than the 3.3 percent boost requested by the Obama Administration and included in an earlier House bill, but more than the slight cut that a Senate panel had previously approved," Malakoff and Kaiser write. "The bill also follows through on a top priority for NIH Director Francis Collins: It creates a $576 million center aimed at moving basic discoveries into the clinic, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. The bill also dismantles NIH's National Center for Research Resources."