Bioscience Briefing
For info about biomedical funding, animal research and other bioscience issues, click here.
Science Policy Announcements
For the latest news from the APS Science Policy click here.
Resource Book Now Available
Click here for more info on The APS Resource Book for the Design of Animal Exercise Protocols.
The NIH Budget
in the Post-Doubling Era
In 2006, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) saw its budget cut for the first time in more than 30 years. Since 2004 the NIH budget has been growing at less than the rate of inflation, and the flattening budget has led to dwindling numbers of research project grants and a precipitous drop in success rates.
The outlook for the NIH budget in FY 2007 does not promise any relief for the agency or the extramural scientific community. In June, members of the House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee for Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, chaired by Rep. Ralph Regula (R-OH), followed the Administration’s recommendation for the NIH, providing the agency with $28.3 billion, the same allocation it received last year.
If the NIH is funded at last year’s level, it will be the agency’s second consecutive year without a budget increase and will result in continued erosion of purchasing power as the rate of biomedical inflation hovers at 3.8%. Under the Administration’s proposal, most of the NIH institute and center budgets would be cut by 0.5-0.8%, resulting in the loss of approximately 650 research project grants. With the number of grant applications still on the rise, the NIH expects that overall success rates will drop to 19% in 2007, from a high of 32% in 2001.
In the Senate, Labor-HHS-Ed appropriators led by Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) will have a chance to reassess spending priorities. Chairman Specter and ranking member Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) are both longtime supporters of the NIH. This year they worked together to champion an effort to add crucial additional dollars for Labor-HHS-Ed spending.
The final step in the funding process will be the reconciliation of the House and Senate versions of the spending bill. Reaching a compromise between the House and Senate versions will be particularly difficult this year, since the two chambers failed to agree on a budget resolution that sets the basic parameters for spending.
Back to NIH Policies