NCI requested $5.03 billion, a whopping 34 percent boost of $1.27 billion. The bypass budget is so-called because, under the National Cancer Act of 1971, NCI's budget request is submitted directly to the president, bypassing approval by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that is required of other NIH institutes and centers.
This bypass budget represents the cancer institute's "strategic planning," says John Hartinger, NCI's associate director for budget and financial management. The budget submitted to Congress by the president, he says, does not contain the same level of detail and is not organized in the same way as is the bypass budget. "Once we get a budget number back from Congress, then the director and the advisers will allocate it back to the bypass budget areas," Hartinger explains. "We will be able to 'cross-walk' it back" to specific program areas outlined ...
