Lawmakers in the US are working to come up with a budget agreement ahead of tonight's deadline. The New York Times reports that Senate leaders have come to agreement that would fund the government through September 2019 and avoid another government shutdown.
This bipartisan agreement — which still needs to be voted on — would increase the National Institutes of Health's budget by $2 billion, Stat News reports. This, it notes, is in contrast to the $6 billion budget decrease that the Trump Administration requested for the agency last spring and it is more in line with the request Congress made in the fall. ScienceInsider notes that this increase would be in addition to the $500 million NIH would get under the 21st Century Cures Act. ScienceInsider adds that the National Science Foundation could also see a bump to its budget under this agreement.
The Times says that the Senate and the House are expected to vote on the deal today, and that President Donald Trump has given it his support in a tweet.