Specter determined to hike NIH appropriation by another $2 billion
Challenges under GOP budget outline highlighted in Post article
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA, who helped engineer last year's $2 billion
appropriations increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said
he is determined to give NIH another $2 billion in FY 2000, despite a GOP
budget resolution that sets strict limits on discretionary spending, the
Washington Post reports.
According to an article in Tuesday's Post, Specter, chair of the Senate
Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related
Agencies subcommittee, sees NIH as his top priority. He told the Post that
he is "determined to raise NIH by $2 billion," despite his party's
insistence that discretionary spending stay within limits established in
the 1997 balanced budget deal.
Specter's comments were included in an article on how Republican
appropriations subcommittee chairs view their party's budget strategy. The
GOP-authored budget resolution essentially requires them to fund big
increases in defense and education programs, while keeping overall spending
$9 billion below last year's level. According to the Post, which
interviewed most of the 26 House and Senate subcommittee chairs, "there is
widespread doubt that the spending limits can be maintained and
exasperation with colleagues who refuse to exceed them."
The full Washington Post story is available at:
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/budget/stories/budget04
06
99.htm].
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