WIKIMEDIA, BJOERTVEDTA US Senate subcommittee has recommended that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) get a budget boost in 2014, ScienceInsider reported. The subcommittee is proposing a budget of nearly $31 billion for the 2014 fiscal year, compared to the post-sequester $29.15 billion the agency was allocated for the 2013 fiscal year.

NIH director Francis Collins has been testifying extensively on the importance of protecting the agency’s funding, including in front of the Senate subcommittee that made the new budget recommendation. The amount proposed by the subcommittee falls only slightly short of the President Obama’s $31.3 billion NIH budget request, released earlier this year.

The House of Representatives has yet to weigh in on the NIH’s 2014 funding, however. The overall House NIH budget will be smaller than that proposed by the Senate, because House leaders wish to continue to cut federal spending.

But a House subcommittee...

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