 |
 |
The Washington Post web page reports this morning: " House Republicans yesterday crafted a major domestic spending bill that boosts funding for NIH by $1.2 billion---. ---by showering funds on medical and scientific research favored by House Speaker Newt Gingrich while squeezing other programs favored by the Democrats." " The NIH clearly would be the single biggest beneficiary. According to an analysis prepared by NIH Director Harold Varmus's office in February, much of the additional funding ---a 9 % increase over this year--would go into two especially fast-moving fields : genetic medicine, which looks at the relationship between genes and disease, and neuroscience, which promises insights into Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and various psychiatric syndromes." This has to survive the annual struggle for the final budget approval , but it helps to have Newt favoring research. I don't know how this reconciles with funding the Udall Act with $ 100 million , but it looks like a step in the direction which we all want. I will be interested in an analysis of this development by Mike Claeys of PAN.