The House Appropriations Committee approved a draft of the bill that matches the administration’s request for a 2.7 percent increase for NIH, which would put its budget at $27.9 billion dollars for FY 2004. The Senate Committee’s version ups the ante by proposing a 3.8 percent increase over the FY 2003 spending level, which works out to $28.2 billion. Most individual institutes would receive a 2 percent to 4 percent increase under both plans.

The Senate and House appropriations bills include more money for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention than requested by the administration, but the budget for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality remains unchanged from FY 2003 levels ($304 million) in both versions.

Behavioral research was singled out a number of times within the Senate committee’s markup. For instance, the appropriations report noted the “clear relevance of fundamental behavioral factors to a variety of diseases and health conditions” and encouraged the National Institute of General Medical Sciences “to incorporate basic behavioral research as part of its portfolio.” Behavioral research was also emphasized in the report’s comments on a number of other institutes, including the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Institute of Nursing Research.

The Senate committee also praised the National Institute on Drug Abuse for its translational research, citing its “innovative approaches to rapidly move basic behavioral science into clinical application.”

The HHS budget numbers are far from final, and HABIT readers can still voice support for various institutes, focus areas or overall funding levels through their professional organizations and Web sites like here or here.

You can also follow the progress of the bills at the congressional legislation site Thomas (http://thomas.loc.gov/; scroll down to “Status of FY2004 Appropriations Bills”).