The National Institutes of Health may be getting a healthy funding boost by year's end.

Within the next couple of weeks, the US Senate is expected to debate a supplementary funding package that includes $500 million to NIH for 2008. Senate Committee on Appropriations chairman Robert Bryd (D- WVa) introduced the supplement at the end of July. The nearly $24 billion funding package includes stipulations to spur economic growth and help recovery from recent hurricane and flooding disasters.

The NIH received $150 million in extra funding in July as part of an appropriations bill devised to support the war in Iraq.

Congress adjourns in less than two weeks and it is still uncertain when this supplemental funding will go to the Senate floor. The House is still considering a supplemental funding package of its own, with a final version expected within a week, a press officer at the Appropriations Committee told The Scientist.