Senate Passes Resolution to Spare NIH From Major Cuts in Funding

WASHINGTON--The $1 billion cut that the National Institutes ofHealth (NIH) had anticipated has been shelved for the time being.The Senate voted 85 to 14 on a resolution by Sen. Mark Hatfield(R-OR) to spare NIH from the need to make serious cuts in a widevariety of programs and initiatives.

In a similar move, the House of Representatives passed a resolutionthat would cut the NIH budget by only 5% and keep the budget frozenthrough the year 2002.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of the Labor, HHS, and EducationAppropriations Subcommittee, devised a bipartisan strategy toprevent drastic budget slashing for NIH. He requested that NIHDirector Harold Varmus and several institute directors providethe subcommittee with strong written statements to describe NIHgoals.

NCI Acting Director Edward Sondik said that the proposed cutswould cause great harm to the institute, especially in terms offunding new grants and continuing work on the Human Genome Project.