Alert

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, today announced that the National Institutes of Health has received $34.1 billion in the omnibus appropriations bill, a $2 billion increase over last year’s funding level. This is the second $2 billion increase Blunt has secured for NIH. Last year’s $2 billion increase represented the largest funding boost NIH had received in the Labor/HHS bill in over a decade.

“The investments we make in NIH research will not only save lives, they’ll lead to new frontiers in drug and device development that are critical for reducing health care costs, growing our economy, and maintaining America’s competitive edge in innovation,” said Blunt. “The funding provided in this bill reflects the priorities of the American people, and puts us on track to maintain a robust, sustained federal commitment to medical research. I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan bill, and I’ll continue working to ensure NIH has the resources it needs to give hope to more families battling cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and other chronic diseases.”

Since becoming chairman of the Labor/HHS subcommittee, Blunt has increased funding for NIH by a total of 13.3 percent. In the decade prior, stagnant funding levels had resulted in NIH losing more than 20 percent of its purchasing power.

Following Are Some of the Key NIH Investments Included in the Omnibus Bill:

• $1.39 Billion for Alzheimer’s Disease Research: The bill provides $1.39 billion for Alzheimer’s disease research, a $400 million increase from the FY2016 level. Since taking over as chairman of the subcommittee, Blunt has more than doubled the amount spent on Alzheimer’s disease research. Every 68 seconds, someone in America develops Alzheimer’s. There are currently more than five million Americans living with the disease and that number is expected to reach as high as 16 million by 2050. Yet for every $125 Medicare and Medicaid spend on caring for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, the federal government spends only $1 on Alzheimer’s research.
  
  
• $5.7 Billion for the National Cancer Institute: The bill includes $5.7 billion for the National Cancer Institute, which represents an increase of $475.8 million from the FY2016 level. Research is underway at NCI to develop therapies that target gene mutations present in 30 percent of cancers. It is one of several key initiatives the Institute is pursuing to advance cancer research and treatment.
  
  
• $320 Million for the Precision Medicine Initiative: The measure includes $320 million for the Precision Medicine Initiative, an increase of $120 million above FY2016. Dr. Timothy Eberlein, Director of the Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis, recently testified before the subcommittee on the critical role that federal support for the Human Genome Project has had in advancing precision medicine therapies. Washington University was highly instrumental in the Human Genome Project, contributing roughly 25 percent of the final code. That work, in turn, has allowed researchers to pioneer the sequencing of cancer genomes.
  
  
• $260 Million for the BRAIN Initiative: The bill secures $260 million for the BRAIN Initiative, an increase of $110 million from the FY2016 level. The BRAIN Initiative will map the human brain to help researchers better understand and treat brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, traumatic brain injury, and depression.
  
  
• $463 Million to Combat Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria: The measure provides a total of $463 million, a $50 million increase from the FY2016 level, to expand efforts to develop new antibiotics, create rapid diagnostic tests, and build a national genome sequence database on all reported resistant human infections.
  
  
• $12.6 Million for the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act: The Gabriella Miller Kids First Act, which was signed into law in 2014, created a dedicated fund for pediatric medical research. The bill provides the resources authorized under the law, and prioritizes funding for pediatric cancer research.
   
• $162 Million for the Expansion of NIH's Clinical Center: NIH will receive $162 million for the expansion of its Clinical Center. There are about 1,500 clinical research studies underway at the Clinical Center, focused on diseases such as cancer, AIDS, depression, nerve diseases, and more.
  
  

In addition, the measure includes funding increases for every Institute and Center to continue investments in innovative research that will advance fundamental knowledge and speed the development of new therapies, diagnostics, and preventive measures to improve the health of all Americans.

Last year, universities and research organizations in Missouri received $508.9 million in NIH funding.

Blunt has received several recognitions for his efforts to prioritize investments in medical research, including, most recently, the Distinguished Public Service Award from American Association for Cancer Research, the Edwin C. Whitehead Award for Medical Research Advocacy from Research!America, and the 2016 Humanitarian Award from the Alzheimer’s Association.

Additional information on Labor/HHS programs that are important to Missouri and funded in the bill is available here.

*Updated on May 3, 2017