House Passes Bill That Would Add $8.75 Billion to NIH Budget

The U.S. House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation on Friday that would increase the National Institutes of Health’s budget by $8.75 billion over the next five years, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported on Friday.

The health-care bill, called 21st Century Cures (HR 6), is intended to hasten the development of new drugs and medical devices. If passed by the Senate and signed by President Obama, the legislation would break a budgetary logjam that has kept research spending flat for the past 14 years.

Money for the proposal would come from the sale of oil in America’s strategic petroleum reserve.