After reading all the arguments against earmarking NIH funds and after the
disappointment of Congress not funding the Udall measure, I came across the
following item quoted verbatim from Dr. Andrew Weil's _Self Healing_,
December 1998, p3.
"OAM Upgraded in Status. The omnibus spending
bill passed by Congress and signed by President
Clinton in late October gave a boost in prestige and
funding to the National Institutes of Health's Office of
Alternative Medicine (OAM). The legislation upgraded
the OAM to the status of an NIH center, renaming it
the National Center for Complementary and Alternative
Medicine (NCCAM) and giving it more autonomy to
fund studies of its own choosing. The bill also allocat-
ed $50 million for the NCCAM's first year of opera-
tion-more than double the OAM's 1998 budget of
$20 million-and created a White House Commission
on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy,
which will make recommendations to Congress
regarding insurance coverage, licensing, and other
issues. (NIH, 11/3/98)"
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Sid Roberts 69/4 <[log in to unmask] > Youngstown, Ohio
