President Obama on Thursday proposed a $30.9-billion budget for the National Institutes of Health for the 2010 fiscal year, including basic and clinical research. It sets a baseline 4.7 percent higher than the agencyâ??s final budget under President Bush in 2008.
The announcement is the latest in a series of budget swings for the NIH, which is the largest source of money for academic research. The agencyâ??s budget doubled over five years, from $13.6-billion in fiscal year 1998 to $27.1-billion in 2003. After that, Mr. Bush presided over a six-year trend during which the NIH received annual increases below the rate of inflation.