Republican-Controlled Congress Presents Opportunities and Challenges for NIH

Abstract

Republican control of both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate for the first time in 40 years presents opportunities as well as challenges for federal funding of biomedical research. Although leadership of committees has been transferred from the Democrats to the Republicans, bipartisan support for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will continue to flourish. Such support for the NIH was heightened and expanded during lobbying efforts for the proposed National Fund for Health Research during the last Congress. The brainchild of Senators Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR) and Tom Harkin (D-IA), this concept, introduced during the ill-fated health care reform debate in the last Congress, would establish a voluntary income tax checkoff and a 1% set-aside from all health insurance premiums to go to the NIH to supplement the annual congressional appropriation. Republicans pledged to overhaul the tax code during the 104th Congress, so the income tax checkoff component may become a reality, whereas the 1% set-aside will probably not be resurrected under the expected incremental approach to health care reform. Reportedly, Senator Hatfield plans to soon introduce a free-standing bill to establish a National Fund for Health Research during this new Congress. Funds for this purpose may be deposited in the prospective NIH National Foundation for Biomedical Research, which was created under the 1993 NIH Revitalization Act. In addition, the envisioned Fund has been retained in legislation to inspire state-executed health care reform, S. 308, the Health Partnership Act, reintroduced by Senator Hatfield and Senator Bob Graham (D-FL). If S.308 becomes law, it would provide at least $6 billion to the NIH over a period of 5 years to supplement the NIH annual congressional appropriation. The bill contains a voluntary income tax checkoff and a $1 per pack increase in the tobacco excise tax. The American …