The House Appropriations Committee marked up the fiscal 2018 Labor-HHS funding bill with a vote of 28-22 on July 19.
The bill includes a $1.1 billion increase for NIH, a $82 million funding boost for the NCI, and preserves the individual programs and current funding levels for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cancer screening and early detection programs. This version of the bill eliminates funding for the Affordable Care Act and the Family Planning (Title X) Program (The Cancer Letter, July 14).
“United for Medical Research applauds the increase to the budget for NIH contained in the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education funding bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee yesterday,” UMR President Lizbet Boroughs said in a statement. “We are deeply appreciative of Subcommittee Chairman Tom Cole’s unwavering support for boosting funding for medical research.
“We also want to thank Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro and full Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen and Ranking Member Nita Lowey for making funding for medical research a high priority in this bill. We look forward to working with the Senate on its Labor-HHS funding bill and with the full Congress to ensure a 2018 budget solution that enables increased funding for the NIH and the medical research initiatives called for by the 21st Century Cures Act.”
A modest proposal from a former FDA commissioner: Add antidepressants to the nation’s water supply
Warning: This is not a public health recommendation. Do not implement.