In what feels like rare undecomposed tidings from Washington , on Sunday night Congress strike a trade to advance funding to the National Institutes of Health by $ 2 billion over the next five months , efficaciously rejectingPresident Trump ’s planto slash the agency ’s budget for the current financial yr .
A proposition from the Trump administration float earlier this yr aimed tocut $ 1.2 billionfrom the NIH ’s $ 34 billion budget for the current financial year . The budget deal strain late Sunday Nox roundly rejected Trump ’s plan , send a loud message to the White House that medical research has wide of the mark financial backing on both sides of the aisle . NIH enquiry financial support has been on a down vogue for over a decade , but last twelvemonth , Congress sought to reverse that trend , voting to increase the 2016 NIH budget by 5.9 % . For 2017 , Congress had recommend anadditional $ 2 billion increment , a number which it doubled down on this weekend .
Trump ’s budget design also called for a 20 % , $ 5.8 billion cut to the delegacy ’s full budget in 2018 . The fresh agreement does not deal slice for the next fiscal twelvemonth . Current budget negotiation only business organisation government funding through the end of the current financial twelvemonth , in September . support had been frozen at 2016 point until Congress lead the budget answer at the 11th minute Sunday night .
The agreement reached Sunday also more than quadruple fund to fight back opioid addiction , and preserved Planned Parenthood funding , at least for now . The NIH ’s budget increase include $ 400 million for Alzheimer ’s enquiry , $ 476 million for the National Cancer Institute , $ 120 million for the Precision Medicine Initiative to tailor medical specialty to individuals , and $ 110 million for the BRAIN Initiative to map the human brain .
In the past tense , thrash the NIH budget has had a serious shock on biomedical research . Between 2003 and 2015 , cuts caused the agency to lose22 % of its capacityto investment trust research , resulting in fewer grants fund , and along with that , presumably , fewer scientific discoveries . If the proposed NIH cuts had conk out through , it could have been a disaster force labs to close and authoritative inquiry to toil to a halt .
Key Republicans include Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri , Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee , and Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma join Democrats in their accompaniment of increasing to the agency ’s funding . Hopefully , this unusual display of bipartisan agreement means biomedical research funding will continue on an upward trend .
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