US Senate Adds $6.5B In NIH Funding To Stimulus Bill

张琨

By Patrick Yoest
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The Senate on Tuesday approved an amendment that would add $6.5 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health to an economic stimulus bill, raising the total proposed cost of the bill to more than $900 billion.
The amendment, proposed by Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., would bring total funding for the National Institutes of Health in the Senate stimulus bill to $10 billion over two years. Specter, who has been treated in recent years for Hodgkin's disease, said the increased funding would help prevent illness and ultimately lower health care costs.
"The National Institutes of Health have been starved recently," Specter said in a statement. "This increase in funding will enable the National Institutes of Health to continue to produce remarkable achievements in scientific advances."
The amendment did not include an offset reducing spending elsewhere in the bill. The Senate stimulus bill now includes $901.5 billion in spending and tax reduction provisions.
With little explanation, Specter dropped a version of the amendment that would offset the NIH funding with a reduction in aid to states. Specter earlier argued for adding an offset, saying that "I think we ought to not add to the deficit."
-By Patrick Yoest, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-3554; patrick.yoest@dowjones.com