Here are five things to know:
1. The funding’s timing is essential as President Donald Trump had proposed to cut $1.2 billion in NIH funding for the current fiscal year.
2. The spending bill does not detail 2018 funding for the agency. However, STAT reports the five-month spending allotment indicates both parties’ commitment to maintaining medical research funding and 21st Century Cures Act compliance. The act seeks speedy drug and medical device approval and also called for NIH funding boosts.
3. The spending bill also granted $800 million to combat the opioid epidemic. Various agencies including the CDC, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Health Resources and Services Administration will receive funding.
4. Of the $2 billion, the NIH will use $400 million for Alzheimer’s research and $476 million for its National Cancer Institute. The agency will allot $120 million more to the Precision Medicine Initiative.
5. In a statement House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said “The omnibus is in sharp contrast to President Trump’s dangerous plans to steal billions from lifesaving medical research, instead increasing funding for the NIH by $2 billion.”
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