Six months later, Congress has not only rejected the president’s NIH’s proposal, lawmakers from both parties have joined forces to increase spending on biomedical research — and have bragged about it.
Pear reported that the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bipartisan bill earlier this month providing $36.1 billion for the health institutes in the fiscal year that starts next month.
The audience erupted in applause when Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), announced the increase at a hearing of a separate Senate committee.
President Trump had proposed to cut funds for the health institutes by $7.5 billion, or 22 percent, to $26.6 billion. Congress pushed back hard.
The president’s proposal “would have crippled American innovation in medical research, delayed new cures and treatments and brought NIH funding to its lowest level since 2002,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), the No. 2 Senate Democrat.
The House Appropriations Committee, though less generous than the Senate, still approved a $1.1 billion increase for the health research agency.
Lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol said they expected the final figure to be close to the higher amount in the Senate bill.
For Pear’s full New York Times story, click here.