A new spending bill for fiscal year 2018 released by Congressional leaders yesterday would provide the US National Institutes of Health with an additional $3 billion in funding, as GenomeWeb has reported. Nature News adds that almost every science agency would see its budget increase under this bill.
The added $3 billion in NIH funding would bring its total budget to $37 billion, which Nature News notes is a historic high. Meanwhile, the National Science Foundation would see a $295 million increase to give it a $7.8 billion budget and NASA would get a $1.1 billion increase to give it a $20.1 billion budget, and Department of Energy's Office of Science would receive a $868 million increase for $6.26 billion budget. However, Nature News adds that the Environmental Protection Agency would see its budget hold at $8.1 billion.
The proposed NIH budget includes $1.8 billion earmarked for Alzheimer's disease research, $400 million for the BRAIN Initiative, and $290 million for the All of Us precision medicine program, GenomeWeb adds.
"This is a good deal," Benjamin Corb, director of public affairs at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, tells Nature News. "We're happy to see these numbers and we hope to see this passed."
Nature News notes that the current stopgap spending bill expires tomorrow and that while the House of Representatives is expected to vote on the omnibus bill today, there's no guarantee the bill will be passed and signed by the president before that deadline.