Senate Committee Proposes Funding Boost to NIH

The U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations approved its Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies federal fiscal year (FY) 2024 spending bill July 27. The bill now advances to the full Senate for consideration.

The bill would provide a total of $49.224 billion for both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The total includes $47.724 billion for NIH, a $943 million increase from FY 2023 allotted funds. The NIH appropriation includes $407 million in funding from the 21st Century Cures Act and $678 million in emergency funding to restore a scheduled cut to Cures funding in FY 2024. The bill includes $7.38 billion for the National Cancer Institute (NCI), maintaining the $216 million funding for the Cancer Moonshot program. As in FY 2023, the committee’s bill would provide $1.5 billion in new funding for ARPA-H, in addition to funding provided and available to ARPA-H to date.

The Senate bill is more hopeful in terms of NIH and biomedical research funding in comparison to the recently released House bill, which cut funding. In March, the American College of Radiology (ACR®) joined nearly 400 organizations in recommending at least $51 billion for NIH’s base program level in order to capitalize on the abundance of scientific opportunity and to strengthen the medical research workforce.

Neither the House nor Senate is expected to move their FY 2024 spending bills forward until Congress returns in September. With funding for the current fiscal year set to expire Sept. 30, Congress will likely need to pass a continuing resolution, a temporary government funding bill, as a stopgap until work on appropriations bills are complete.

For more information, contact Katie Grady, ACR Government Affairs Director.