Senate Adds $1 Billion in NIH Funding to Proposed Economic Recovery Package

November 18, 2008 – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-WV) have introduced a $100.3 billion economic recovery package that includes $1 billion for the National Institutes of Health for fiscal year 2009.

ASH had joined with the biomedical research community in urging congressional leaders to include an additional $1.9 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in any economic recovery package considered by Congress this year. This important funding – which represents, perhaps, the last remaining chance to provide NIH with additional funding before the end of the 2008 calendar year – would build upon the $150 million in additional fiscal year FY 2008 funding for NIH that congressional supporters were able to secure earlier this year and would represent an important step towards reversing NIH's current downward funding trend.

The Senate may vote on this legislation as early as tomorrow, though opposition by Republicans likely will delay passage until January.  It is important that you visit the ASH Advocacy Center to join ASH’s advocacy efforts to increase NIH funding by contacting your senators and urging them to support the stimulus package.