Key House Republican to Seek More Money for NIH

The Republican who heads the House of Representatives subcommittee that sets the budget for the National Institutes of Health said last week that he would push for a bigger increase in the agency’s fiscal-1998 budget than President Clinton is seeking.

The President’s spending plan for the agency is"inadequate,” Representative John Edward Porter of Illinois said at the first hearing in a process that eventually will yield a 1998 budget for the N.I.H.

In the budget plan he released last month, President Clinton proposed an increase of $340-million, or about 3 per cent, in the agency’s budget, to nearly $13.1-billion in 1998 from $12.75-billion in 1997.

Mr. Porter said that a jump of 6 or 7 per cent would be more appropriate. He fought for, and won, increases of 6 per cent in fiscal 1996 and 7 per cent in 1997 -- both of which were significantly higher than President Clinton’s requests.

Harold E. Varmus, director of the N.I.H., said at the hearing that President Clinton’s proposed increase"will allow us to maintain our momentum” in financing research.