WIKIMEDIA, KMCCOYThe US Congress rolled out an omnibus $1.1 trillion spending bill on Monday (January 13) that would keep the government in operation through October. The bipartisan bill, which was authored by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-KY) and Senate counterpart Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), slates $29.934 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a $1 billion increase from the agency’s sequester-wracked 2013 budget.
But this boost isn’t large enough, according to many in the research community. “The FY14 omnibus spending bill falls short of restoring funding for lifesaving National Institutes of Health (NIH) biomedical research,” said Carrie Wolinetz, president of the biomedical science advocacy group United for Medical Research, in a statement. “The proposed package won’t adequately reverse the damage done by last year’s budget sequester and ensure the nation’s biomedical research enterprise makes continued progress in lifesaving research and development.”
The NIH budget increase contained in the spending bill is, in fact, $714 million less than 2013’s “enacted level” of $30.648 billion, according to House Democrats. And the NIH itself reports that if the bill were to pass, the agency would be getting $950 million less than ...
