|
Senators Harkin and Specter secured a
$620 million increase for NIH in FY2007. The FY2007 Joint
Funding Resolution was filed last night and includes the additional
funds for NIH. While the House and Senate still must vote
on the resolution, it's more a formality at this point.
In fact, in the end, the Senators were
able to accomplish the goal of receiving $7 billion more (than what
the President had proposed) for the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations
subcommittee (to distribute to health and education programs).
You may remember that in response to an alert last spring (to push
for the additional $7 billion), FASEB society members contacted
their Members of Congress in numbers never seen before (more than
15,000 letters were sent).
According to the Joint Funding resolution,
the $620 million increase for NIH in FY2007 will allow NIH to award
an additional 500 research grants. It will create a new $40 million
program to support innovative, thinking-outside-the-box research.
And it looks to the future by providing $91 million for grants to
first-time investigators. The resolution includes $69 million
for the National Children's Study.
|
