NIH: President Proposes $1 Billion Budget Increase

      President Clinton will propose $19 billion for NIH -- a $1 billion increase -- in his FY 2001 budget, Reuters reports. Also, the White House will seek to eliminate congressional restrictions on an additional $4.3 billion for research, according to White House Chief of Staff John Podesta. "We're going to make a major investment again in the National Institutes of Health," Podesta said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" (1/16). If Congress approves the budget, funding for NIH will increase 80% -- to nearly twice what the budget was when Clinton took office. The White House said additional funding would allow researchers to "study diseases affecting the health and lives of Americans, including diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer and neurological diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's." Nearly $20 million would fund the creation of the Center for Research on Minority Health to study racial disparities in many diseases (White House release, 1/16).