Controversial pediatric research bill goes to Obama

The U.S. Senate passed the Kids First Research Act ( H.R. 2019), which would eliminate the options for taxpayers to fund presidential campaigns and party conventions and create a pediatric research fund managed by NIH's Common Fund. The bill authorizes $13 million per year through FY24 for the research fund. Some legislators and pediatric research advocates have expressed opposition to the bill, noting that the fund does little to offset sequestration and that the funds would still be subject to NIH's existing spending caps and would not provide the agency any additional funding beyond its authorized budget, instead diverting funds from other NIH programs.

According to an NIH report, the agency spent about $3.7 billion of its FY13 post-sequester budget of $29.2 billion on pediatric research funding. In FY14, NIH projects it will spend $3.8 billion of its $30.1 billion budget on pediatric research. ...