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NIH to Receive $2B Funding Boost Under Budget Deal

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) –  US Senate and House leaders early today released a budget plan for fiscal 2017 that would avert a government shutdown while providing the National Institutes of Health with an additional $2 billion in funding.

The proposed budget comes a little more than a month after President Donald Trump proposed cutting nearly $1.2 billion from the NIH's budget during the remainder of the fiscal year — which ends on Sept. 30 — as part of a broader effort to trim government spending.

The roughly $1.1 trillion omnibus appropriations legislation specifically includes $77.7 billion in discretionary funding for the US Department of Health and Human Services — a $2.7 billion increase over the comparable fiscal 2016 level.

Within that package is a $2 billion boost in NIH funding to $34.1 billion, with $1.39 billion earmarked for Alzheimer's disease research, a $400 million increase; $5.7 billion for the National Cancer Institute, an increase of $475.8 million; $320 million for the Precision Medicine Initiative, a $120 million increase; and $260 million for the BRAIN Initiative, an increase of $110 million.

The NIH funding also includes $463 million to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, $333.4 million for the Institutional Development Award, and $12.6 million for the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, as well as increases to every NIH institute and center.

The US Food and Drug Administration would also see a $39 million bump in discretionary funding over fiscal 2016 to $2.76 billion, and $103 million more in total funding — including user fee revenues — to $4.66 billion. An additional $10.9 million is also included to supplement medical product safety and the Precision Medicine initiatives authorized in the 21st Century Cures Act.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meanwhile, would see a $22 million increase in total funding to $7.3 billion.

"The omnibus is in sharp contrast to President Trump's dangerous plans to steal billions from lifesaving medical research," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in a statement.

"It is a solid bill that reflects our common values and that will help move our nation forward, and I urge its quick approval by the Congress and the White House," Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), chairman of the US House of Representatives committee on appropriations, said in a separate statement.

The omnibus legislation could be put up for a vote before the full House as early as Wednesday.