US Senators last night (March 10) passed the long-delayed $410 billion omnibus spending bill that includes $30.3 billion for the National Institutes of Health in FY09. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the legislation today.

The NIH allotment would be a $938 million boost over the agency's FY08 budget - a 3% increase, which roughly tracks inflation. The National Science Foundation is set to get nearly $6.5 billion in FY09, a 5.9% increase over its FY08 budget.

In addition, the Department of Energy's Office of Science would be working with a $4.77 billion FY09 budget, a whopping 18.8% increase over FY08.

Republican and Democratic legislators wrangled with the bill's multitude of earmarks for months before agreeing to pass the measure by a 62-35 vote in the Senate.


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Flat funding for NIH in 2009
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