Congress increases NIH funding after Trump calls for cuts

Lawmakers increased the budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in its bipartisan deal to fund the government, effectively ignoring the Trump administration’s proposal.

Congress bolstered funding by $2 billion over the next five months, securing $34.1 billion for the NIH. It’s the biggest boost the NIH has received in more than a decade, higher than at any point during the Obama administration. 

President Trump had proposed cutting the NIH budget by $1.2 billion for the rest of the current fiscal year.

“The omnibus is in sharp contrast to President Trump’s dangerous plans to steal billions from lifesaving medical research, instead increasing funding for the NIH by $2 billion,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement, according to reports.

{mosads}Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said lawmakers saved the budget from Trump’s “draconian” proposals.

“We got rid of most of the draconian budget cuts proposed by President Trump, like cuts to NIH,” said Leahy, ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, according to the Huffington Post.

“You can’t turn scientific research on health care on and off. You either continue it or you don’t.”

The spending deal did not address NIH spending for 2018.