NIH budget bump gets Senate vote

Written byBob Grant

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In the current, lame-duck session of Congress, an economic stimulus bill introduced yesterday (Nov 17) would give the linkurl:National Institutes of Health;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55179/ a $1 billion boost for FY 2008. The legislation and its billion-dollar-NIH-bump is being applauded by the linkurl:Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology,;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/54829/ a biomedical research association, but no one involved, including the bills authors, holds out much hope for passage of the legislation before the end of the year. The Reid/Byrd Economic Recovery Act of 2008, authored by Senators linkurl:Robert Byrd;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54842/ (D-WV) and linkurl:Harry Reid;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53059/ (D-NV), is the same that would give $25 billion to America's "big three" automakers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. A spokesperson from Sen. Reid's office said that the Senate would probably vote on the bill tomorrow. "The likelihood is that it will be blocked, but who knows what will happen," a FASEB spokesperson told __The Scientist__. If the bill makes it onto the floor of the Senate tomorrow, it is thought that Republicans will delay a vote until the next Congressional session in January 2009. __(Correction 11/19: In the original version of this story, Harry Reid was mislabeled "(R-NV)." The mistake has been corrected, and __The Scientist__ regrets the error.)__

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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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