Defense research spending up, NIH bill fails

Written byBob Grant

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On Tuesday (Nov. 13) President Bush linkurl:signed;http://chronicle.com/subscribe/login?url=http%3A%2F%2Fchronicle.com%2Fdaily%2F2007%2F11%2F708n.htm a defense bill linkurl:(HR 3222);http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgibin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:h3222enr.txt.pdf that ups the 2008 Pentagon budget by $40 billion from last year and increases Pentagon-funded basic research programs by about $81.2 million, according to a spokesperson for the bill's sponsor, Representative John Murtha (R-PA). HR 3222 increases funding for peer-reviewed breast cancer research programs by about $10.5 million over last year to $138 million. It also provides $80 million for peer-reviewed prostate cancer research and $10 million for ovarian cancer research, maintaining last year's funding of these programs. Bush signed the defense bill the same day that he linkurl:vetoed;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/home/53858/ the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education linkurl:bill;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/53852/ that sought to increase the budgets of the departments of Labor and Education as well as that of the NIH. Last night (Nov. 15) the House of Representatives failed to override the Bush veto, falling just two votes short of the two-thirds vote necessary. Funding for applied research in the defense bill actually drops by about $186.6 million from last year's defense budget.

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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