SOT and a number of scientific societies and nongovernmental organizations will be submitting a letter in early April urging leaders of both House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees to provide an appropriation of $32 billion for the National Institutes of Health and $717.7 million for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in FY2013. he $32 billion represents a 4.5 percent increase over the FY2012 level of $30.7 billion. The letters will be sent to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies and to the Chairman and Ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies. In the letters, SOT and others urge the Members of Congress to “sustain, not curtail, the innovative biomedical research pipeline into prevention, treatments, and cures for diseases affecting millions of Americans.”
In related developments, more than 150 Members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to the House Appropriations Committee leadership requesting a funding level for NIH of at least $32 billion. The bipartisan letter signed by Reps. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Brian Bilbray (R-CA) the Member said, “We feel this level is absolutely vital in order for NIH to continue improving health through medical science breakthroughs and to maintain international leadership in science and biomedical research.”