A budget deal that includes increases in funding to both the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quickly passed through Congress and is expected to be signed by President Obama.
The omnibus budget agreement, announced Dec. 15, cleared the House on Dec. 18 by a 316-113 vote, with five representatives not voting. The agreement was quickly passed the same day in the Senate by a 65-33 vote. If signed, the budget bill would fund the government through the end of fiscal year 2016.
Alicia Ault/Frontline Medical News
The agreement would boost funding to the NIH by $2 billion, bringing the total budget to $32 billion. It would increase funding for the CDC by about $308 million, bringing the 2016 budget to $7.2 billion.
The bill would cut $30 million from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality budget and keep the budgets at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at their fiscal 2015 levels.
Absent from the bill are any changes to the Meaningful Use program, as well as any cuts to Planned Parenthood funding.