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Congress Approves 3 Percent Increase in NIH Budget for Fiscal 2021

NEW YORK — Congress on Monday overwhelming approved a spending package for fiscal 2021 that includes a roughly 3 percent increase in funding for the National Institutes of Health.

The $1.4 trillion appropriations package would boost the NIH's budget by $1.25 billion to approximately $42.9 billion. Of that total, $6.36 billion would go to the National Cancer Institute, $3.66 billion to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and $615.8 million to the National Human Genome Research Institute.

The NIH's BRAIN Initiative would see a $60 million increase in funding to $560 million in FY 2021, while Alzheimer's disease research would receive an additional $300 million to $3.12 billion and $220 million would go toward supporting the development of a universal flu vaccine.

The US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention would receive $7.9 billion in funding for fiscal 2021, $125 million over its current budget, while the budget for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would remain flat at $4 billion.

The US Senate voted to approve the bill 92-6, with the US House of Representatives voting to pass the legislation by 359-53. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the legislation.

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