On Thursday, January 15, the House Appropriations Committee offered its version of an Economic Stimulus plan, totaling $825 billion. The plan includes $275 billion in tax cuts, while also adding $550 billion in new spending, including clean energy, education, and scientific research.
Specifically, the bill allocates $3 billion over two years to the National Institutes of Health to "put scientists to work looking for the next great discovery." The plan would allocate $750 million per year to the individual Institutes and Centers (ICs) at NIH on a pro rata basis according to the FY08 percentages. This means that at 1.33% of the NIH total budget in FY08, NIDCR would be slated to see an influx of just under $10 million in FY09 and FY10, on top of the regular yearly appropriations from Congress.
It is not yet known whether Congress will build stimulus funding into the baseline funding for NIH in the years going forward, but AADR leaders plan to make the importance of doing so known to Appropriators if the funding for NIH passes within the entire stimulus package.
On the Senate side, Democrats have not yet introduced their stimulus package, but Senator Specter has been rumored to be preparing a $10 billion package for NIH to be spent over two years.
AADR President Brian Clarkson, B.Ch.D., L.D.S., Ph.D, MS and Executive Director Christopher Fox, DMD, DMSc. urged Senate Appropriations Committee members to support Senator Specter's request for NIH within the stimulus plan. They also made it known to members that many of NIH's core grant-producing ICs still have not received the anticipated doubling during the 1998-2003 period, and many ICs have decreased in size as a total percent of the entire NIH budget since that time - mainly due to large budgetary increases at NIAID and the Office of the Director.
These funding shortfalls have caused a massive backlog in peer-reviewed grants that are ready to be funded immediately. Take action now and write to your Member of Congress about making sure to invest in NIH within the economic stimulus package. This is a critical time to make up for years of flat funding at NIH! Be sure to help ensure NIH is not left out of this huge investment package!
