NIH REAUTHORIZATION BILL PASSES
The 109th
Congress may have passed more legislation in its
last day than throughout all of 2006. One of
the many measures that passed included the
National Institutes of Health
Reform Act of 2006 (HR 6164), which
authorizes significant funding increases for NIH
in FY2007–FY2009, sets up a “common fund” for
trans NIH-research involving more than one
Institute or Center (IC), and expands reporting
requirements.
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INSIDE (The Beltway) SCOOP
- Jon Retzlaff, Legislative Director
When Democratic appropriations chairmen David
Obey (D-WI) and Robert Byrd (D-WV) announced
that they would keep most government agencies
operating under their FY2006 budgets until next
fall, it seemed to eliminate any chance of
halting the erosion in NIH’s budget that has
been occurring since 2003. However, the
Democratic leaders may have provided an opening
when they also said that the final FY2007
spending bills would not include any
congressional earmarks, the targeted
appropriations for special projects in members’
home districts. The savings generated from
these earmarks is expected to be in the range of
$8 billion. And, in fact, just within the
Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill,
approximately $1 billion is currently reserved
for earmarks.
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