Congress likely to reject Trump proposal for flat NIH funding

In his FY19 proposed budget released Monday, President Donald Trump asked Congress to flat-line NIH funding. Just as Congress ignored a Trump administration request to slash the NIH budget last year, it is unlikely to agree to flat funding this year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced last week his commitment to increase NIH funding by $2 billion over the next two years (see BioCentury Extra, Feb. 8).

The Trump budget proposal also requests that Congress move three agencies from other parts of HHS into NIH: the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation; the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH); and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Under the proposal, AHRQ would become the National Institute for Research on Safety and Quality.

Funding currently allocated to the agencies would be transferred to NIH, so under the plan NIH’s total budget would appear to increase, although no additional money would be made available for biomedical research.