Last night (November 8th) the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill aiming to increase NIH funding from $28.6 billion this year to $30 billion next year.

Jon Retzlaff, spokesperson for the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), said he expects President Bush to veto the bill when it lands on his desk tomorrow or early next week, because it oversteps the administration's suggested funding levels. The bill passed by a vote of 274-141, just three votes shy of obtaining an automatic veto override.

The bill (H.R.3043) has been knocking around on Capitol Hill since July 13, when it was introduced in the House. In the intervening months, legislators have added amendments to and trimmed funding from the original bill, also piggybacking and uncoupling it from other bills in efforts to subvert the imminent veto. It cleared the Senate on Wednesday.

If the president does veto the bill, it heads back to the House where legislators will vote on overriding the veto. The prospect of that happening is unlikely, according to Retzlaff. "It would be very tough to be successful with an override attempt," he said, adding that FASEB will rally its membership to encourage their legislators to override the veto.

Yesterday, the House also approved a defense spending bill that increases the Pentagon budget by $40 billion in 2008.