NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law a roughly $1.1 trillion budget bill for fiscal year 2017 that will, among other things, provide an additional $2 billion in funding to the National Institutes of Health.
The legislation had broad bipartisan support and was quickly approved by both the US House of Representatives and US Senate after it was released last week. It includes 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 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will see a $22 million increase in total funding to $7.3 billion under the new budget, while the National Science Foundation will receive a $9 million increase to $7.5 billion.
President Trump had previously called for a $1.2 billion reduction in the NIH's budget for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.