BioCentury
ARTICLE | Politics, Policy & Law

Penury to Plenty

April 9, 2001 7:00 AM UTC

Fattening Up NIH

When George W. Bush announced in February that he planned to ask Congress for the largest increase in NIH's budget in history, the scientific establishment was pleased, but not surprised. Although former NIH Director Harold Varmus publicly endorsed Al Gore, as did many institute directors privately, they did so because of concern about Bush's policies on embryonic stem cell research and his long-standing conservative political convictions, not because the Texan would pinch their purses. In fact, Bush and Al Gore pledged during the campaign to make good on a bipartisan commitment to double NIH's fiscal 1999 budget by fiscal 2003...