Congressional leaders have come up with a bipartisan agreement that will keep the government open through the end of September and provide additional funding for the National Institutes of Health.
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate still must vote on the $1 trillion spending plan (PDF) this week before funding runs out on Friday night, but lawmakers are optimistic they will approve the new budget, Reuters reports.
Among the winners of the omnibus spending package: the National Institutes of Health, which will receive more than $2 billion in funding over the next few months. The medical research agency stood to lose billions under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget.
Critics of Trump’s plan said the cuts would set back research on diseases and slow medical innovation.
But the new funding plan will give the NIH an additional $400 million for Alzheimer’s research, $46 million for the National Cancer Institute and $320 million for the Precision Medicine Initiative. The funding will also support opioid addiction programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Health Resources and Services Administration, STAT notes.
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The bill also fends off cuts to Planned Parenthood, Reuters reports.
“The omnibus (spending bill) is in sharp contrast to President Trump’s dangerous plans to steal billions from lifesaving research, instead increasing funding for the NIH (National Institutes of Health) by $2 billion,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement issued to various media outlets.