In contrast with last year's federal budget boondoggle, which saw funding increases for key life science agencies frozen for nearly 5 months while partisan politics held sway, rapid progress is being made to pass budgets for fiscal year (FY) 2004, which begins October 1.
During the past 2 weeks, the House of Representatives approved appropriations for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which includes funding for Project BioShield. Last week, a House appropriations subcommittee approved a 6.2% increase for the National Science Foundation (NSF), nearly twice the increase requested by the White House. NIH and BioShield funding in the House match the administration's requests.
The Senate this week will take up floor debate on DHS, and the full House Appropriations Committee will consider the NSF funding measure. But floor debate in the House on NSF and floor action in the Senate on NIH, ...
