Senate budget deal includes $2B boost for NIH

The Senate’s two-year budget deal would give $2 billion more to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the nation’s medical research agency that is beloved by both Democrats and Republicans.

President Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget proposed a $5.8 billion cut to NIH, which would bring the agency’s budget to the lowest level in 15 years.

But lawmakers control the federal government’s purse strings, and had already signaled their disapproval.

“I don’t think it’s a wise choice,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who chairs the House’s health appropriations subcommittee, in late May.

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In a hearing that same month, NIH Director Francis Collins said predictable and stable funding is crucial to the agency’s research, which includes many health projects lawmakers have expressed immense interest in.

NIH research projects include the Cancer Moonshot started under former President Obama and building a 1 million person-large research cohort to gather data that could improve health.

“A rollercoaster model is really destructive both for our trying to plan projects and for people staying in the field who wonder, ‘Is there a career path for me?’” Collins said at a May hearing.

In appropriations bills for fiscal 2018, the House had proposed a $1.1 billion increase for NIH and the Senate had proposed a $2 billion boost.