Congress wants to give the National Institutes of Health its biggest funding windfall in 12 years, with advocates calling it a good “down payment.”
House and Senate appropriators have announced fiscal 2016 spending bills that would increase the research agency’s funding levels. The House is proposing a $100 million boost over President Obama’s budget request and the Senate $2 billion over current levels for the year.
A separate bill in the House called the 21st Century Cures Act would give $10 billion over five years.
The boosts are the biggest for the agency since 2003, soon after which funding started to slide. Over the past 12 years, the agency has struggled with flat budgets, inflation and then sequestration spending caps.
Due to the funding struggles, the NIH has only been able to dole out funds for one out of every six competitive grant applications it receives, said Patrick White, president of the advocacy group ACT for NIH.
The spending bills’ increases would help NIH surpass by more than $560 million the pre-sequestration funding level of $30.6 billion. That doesn’t take into account the funding from the 21st Century Cures Act, White said.
Other advocates lauded the proposed increases.
“”Fewer scientists are getting grants for their projects, which is a sign that we need to raise the level of funding so that investigators can pursue innovative research,” said Suzanne Ffolkes, a spokeswoman for the advocacy group Research America.
A big reason for the shift in funding is that lawmakers have started to see the benefits of robust medical research, said Jennifer Poulakidas, co-president of the group United for Medical Research.
“Ultimately these discoveries lead to therapies and cures for patients,” she told the Washington Examiner. “Had we kept on a steady growth path for NIH, we would have accomplished a lot more research that tackles the diseases and maladies that end up afflicting people.”
While the groups lauded the funding levels, they all said that the increases needed to continue in later years.
“Obviously $2 billion is incredible but it is a great ‘down payment’ in trying to restore the last 12 years,” White said.
The funding totals could change before the bills reach President Obama.
The House Appropriations Committee advanced its spending bill to the full House on Wednesday by a 30-21 party line vote. The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to take up its own spending bill any day.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the 21st Century Cures Act earlier this month, but it has not been considered by the full House. Committee Chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., has hoped it would get to the floor by next month.
