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| health > story page |         |
Clinton targets $1 billion extra for biomedical research
January 16, 2000
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In what has become an almost daily ritual the White House announced Sunday another initiative to be included in President Clinton's final budget.
He will propose $1 billion more for biomedical research and also wants to remove congressional restrictions delaying an additional $4.3 billion in previously approved research money, said White House Chief of Staff John Podesta. "The president is going to seek a $1 billion increase in funds for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue our research in cures for cancer, for Alzheimer's, diabetes and other diseases," he told reporters after appearing on ABC's "This Week" program. Podesta said the proposal was part of the president's broader goal of increasing funding for science and technology. He noted that Clinton also would call for the "largest increase in the National Science Foundation in history". The fiscal 2001 budget would include $19 billion ($1 billion more than last year) for biomedical research at NIH. A statement issued later Sunday by the White House said that, if approved, funding for NIH will have increased by more than 80 percent since Clinton took office. The addition would provide "new funding for research on every major disease" and would continue work on decoding the human genome and help turn research into real-world practice. In addition, a $20 million Center for Research on Minority Health would be established to examine why some racial and ethnic minorities experienced high infant mortality rates, low rates of childhood immunization and greater incidence of many diseases.
Podesta also said the president would accelerate efforts this week to reach a compromise with pharmaceutical companies on a Medicare prescription drug benefit. On Thursday Podesta will meet drug industry representatives to explore their proposals. "We hope to push forward with a comprehensive solution to the Medicare problem, to deal with the baby boom generation," Podesta added. "Front and center in that will be a prescription drug benefit which we think the American people want and the American people need." In recent weeks the White House has announced a number of initiatives the president will include both in his final budget and in his final State of the Union speech, which will be on January 27. Clinton has announced he will seek $695 million for civil-rights enforcement, a $21 billion expansion of the earned-income tax credit and $5 billion in tax credits for businesses that invest in minority and poor areas of the country. Correspondent Kelly Wallace and The Associated Press contributed to this report. RELATEDS AT  :
Ethical, legal, and social implications of medical research RELATED STORIES: Online journal could shake up medical breakthrough news RELATED SITES: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
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