President Bush yesterday (February 7) sent to Congress a $28.8 billion budget request for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in fiscal year (FY) 2006, a virtually flat 0.7% increase of $196 million over the current year's funding and far below the projected biomedical inflation rate of 3.5%. If enacted, it would be the first time since 1964 that NIH received an annual increase of less than 1%.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would be cut by 12.1% to $4 billion, a reduction of $555 million. The National Science Foundation (NSF) would receive a 2.4% increase of around $132 million to $5.6 billion, which is still $47 million less than its FY 2004 funding level. NIH's proposed budget for 2006, before transfers from other sources and agencies, totals $28.5 billion, a 0.5% increase of $146 million over the current year's appropriation.
The president's overall budget request for ...
