NIH slated for 0.7% raise in 2006

Research advocates 'disappointed' over meager increases, cuts in White House proposal

By Ted Agres
2/7/05

President Bush sent to Congress on February 7th a $28.8 billion budget request for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in fiscal year (FY) 2006, a virtually flat 0.7% increase of $196 million over the current year's funding and far below the projected biomedical inflation rate of 3.5%. If enacted, it would be the first time since 1964 that NIH received an annual increase of less than 1%.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would be cut by 12.1% to $4 billion, a reduction of $555 million. The National Science Foundation (NSF) would receive a 2.4% increase of around $132 million to $5.6 billion, which is still $47 million less than its FY 2004 funding level. NIH's proposed budget for 2006, before transfers from other sources and agencies, totals $28.5 billion, a 0.5% increase of $146 million over the current year's appropriation.

Most NIH institutes and centers would receive increases of less than 1%. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which funds [AIDS research and] most of NIH's bioterrorism-related research, is once again the agency's biggest gainer at $4.5 billion, a 1.8% increase of $57 million.

The president's overall budget request for the fiscal year beginning October 1 totals $2.57 trillion. Still, it is one of the most austere in recent history with overall non-defense discretionary funding cut by an average of 1%. Nine of 15 cabinet-level departments would receive less money next year than they do this year.

In the past, the NIH has benefited from supporters in Congress who had managed to boost the agency's final budget beyond that which the president proposed. Research advocates hope that will again happen this year.

"We understand the reality of the [fiscal] environment we are living in," said Paul Kincade, president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). "But it's very serious if we erase the [gains made from] doubling the NIH budget, which will happen in fiscal year '07 if present trends continue," he told The Scientist yesterday. FASEB, the American Society for Microbiology, and other research organizations had urged that NIH receive a 6% increase to $30.07 billion.

Because NIH's budget is so large, even a small percentage increase translates into "significant number of dollars when you're trying to freeze discretionary spending," said Dave Moore, associate vice president for government relations at the Association of American Medical Colleges.

"On the one hand, 0.7% is very disappointing, but compared to the rest of the Public Health Service, where you're seeing actual cuts, a $196 million increase certainly is nothing to be sneezed at," Moore told The Scientist.

The proposed NIH budget would provide $15.5 billion for new (competing) and continuing (non-competing) research project grants, a 0.4% increase of $56 million. This would fund about 38,746 total projects, 402 less than this year. The average new research project grant would be funded at $347,000, about the same amount as in FY 2005.

"If we had an unlimited budget, we would spend more on many programs," said Mike Leavitt, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services yesterday. "Since we don't, we have focused money on the most urgent priorities that will make the biggest difference in the health and well being of Americans."

Bioterrorism-related funding, including the Strategic National Stockpile and environmental biosurveillance, would increase by 3.6% to $1.6 billion. A reduction of $240 million in CDC's budget results from no new buildings and facilities construction being planned in fiscal 2006.

In NSF's budget, research and related activities would grow by $113 million or 2.7% to $4.3 billion, while the major research equipment and facilities construction account would increase to $250 million, a 44% increase of $76 million. Funding for NSF's biological sciences directorate would increase by $5 million (0.9%) to $582 million. Minimal funding for planning and designing the National Ecological Observatory Network also would continue, bringing the total to $6 million.

"At least it's a positive number compared to last year's omnibus," said Moore, referring to NSF's 1.9% loss of $106.7 million in the FY 2005 budget approved last November.