Inflationary pressures stressing the National Institute of Health's abilility to fund cutting-edge research eased a little yesterday. Arlen Specter, champ that he is, offered Senate Amendment 506 to add $2.2 billion to the each of the proposed funding levels through 2012.
These increases will restore the NIH's annual budget to where it would be had President Bush and the Republican Congress allowed the NIH's budget to keep pace with inflation.
The good news is that nobody objected to the Amendment, which could be seen as a tacit admission by every Senator that NIH funding is important. The bad news is that some Senators were just ready to go home and would have agreed to most anything if it got them out of there quickly.
That said, it's a positive. The House of Representatives will now draw up their proposed budget, and then work with the Senate to work out differences. Afterwards, the Appropriations process begins, which will hopefully see the NIH get the funding it deserves.
Amendment SA 506 Agreed to in Senate by Unanimous Consent [Thomas]
