Senate OKs big NIH bump

The US Senate, which is furiously debating the details of the economic stimulus package making its way through Congress, passed an amendment yesterday (Feb. 3) to add $6.5 billion in National Institutes of Health funding on top of the $3.5 billion already allotted to the agency in the bill. Science advocacy groups praised passage of the amendment, which was sponsored by Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA), Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL). linkurl:Richard Marchase,;http://main.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=8039 president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), said that the sponsors of the amendment were "champions of biomedical research," in a statement. "Millions of Americans who suffer from devastating illnesses like cancer and Alzheimer's disease, as well as the hundreds of thousands whose jobs depend on NIH funding, owe a great deal to these leaders," he added. "It is our hope that the economic recovery package is one step forward towards a...