Senators Specter and Harkin Seek to Boost NIH Funding

July 24, 2008

Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced a bill on July 16, 2008, to make emergency supplemental appropriations for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The bill, S. 3272, would appropriate $5.2 billion for NIH for the fiscal year that ends on September 30, 2008. Of the total of $5.2 billion, $1.2 billion would be provided to the National Cancer Institute and the remaining $4.0 to the remaining institutes at NIH.

In introducing the bill, Senator Specter decried the recent stagnation in NIH funding. He said, “This funding decline has disrupted the flow of research progress, not just for today, but for years to come. The problem is that an entire generation of research scientists is being discouraged from going into the field of medical research, due to a lack of NIH research grants. This breach in Federal support, if it continues, will further slow ongoing research and hamper the ability to fund new research opportunities for the future. ”

It is highly unlikely that the Specter-Harkin bill will be considered as a freestanding measure. Instead, it could be considered as a provision of a larger spending bill. In keeping with the usual practice on spending bills, Senator Harkin annnounced his intention to pursue $500 million in NIH funding for fiscal year 2008 as a provision of an omnibus supplemental appropriations measure being developed by Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Robert C. Byrd (D-WV). Under the Harkin plan, the additional funding would have been distributed in proportion to current institute funding levels. Consideration of the overall supplemental spending bill, initially slated for July 2008, has been postponed until September 2008, according to Senator Byrd.

Congress will begin its August recess on Friday, August 1, or the weekend following. Upon returning to session on September 8, the Congress will have three short weeks to complete the work of this Congressional session.

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