WASHINGTON—President Bush’s proposed new budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), if enacted by Congress, would complete the 5-year, bipartisan effort to double the agency’s budget over 5 years.
In his request for fiscal year 2003, which begins on Oct. 1, the President asked the House and Senate to boost the NIH budget to $27.335 billion, an increase of 15.7% over funds appropriated for the current fiscal year.
Mr. Bush also asked for a total of $5.5 billion for cancer research at NIH, including $4.725 billion for the National Cancer Institute, an increase for NCI of 12.2% over FY 2002. If Congress accepts the request, the NCI budget will have risen 85.4% during the last 5 years.
An NIH statement said that the increased funding would enable it to "accelerate the pace of cancer research" and support "large-scale studies on critical cancer control, prevention, and screening questions."
The proposed budget also calls for $4 billion for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an increase of 57.3%, most of which will fund bioterrorism research. It also seeks $2.77 billion government-wide for AIDS research, an increase of $255 million (10%) from the current budget.
The budget includes $4.012 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a decrease of $170 million (4%) from CDC’s current budget.
The President asked Congress to approve $1.727 billion for the Food and Drug Administration, an increase of nearly 8%. The FDA’s proposed budget includes an anticipated $295 million from user fees, including $272 million collected under the Prescription Drugs User Fee Act. This act enables pharmaceutical companies to contribute to the drug review process to speed it up.
