Since the 21st Century Cures Act passed mid-way through FY2017, appropriations to NIH have been mostly up and to the right. Unrelated budget disagreements interupted that pattern in FY2019 but the FY2020 appropriations will make up for lost time.
The House had initially proposed and approved $40.5B and the Senate proposed $42B. In the final appropriation released yesterday, NIH is expected to get $41.7B, an increase of about 7% over FY2019 level of $38B.
The increase is due in large part to a restoration of funding to the National Cancer Institute which had seen a budget cut in favor of other NIH Institutes in FY2019, when overall funding only increased about 2.9%.
The FY2019 disruption in funding was due in part to the budgetary environment. The administration had made funding of a southern border wall a priority to much derision in Congress. At the same time, several aspiring presidential candidates had advocated for making NIH funding non-discretionary, like that for Medicare and Social Security, and specifically projects contemplated by the sweeping 21st Century Cures Act. The budget impasse led to a compromise which, as is usually the case, satisfied no one. Ultimately, total NIH funding increased just 3% for FY2019, a spending level that has carried over to date.
NIH is primarily a grant-making body. With the exception of approximately $2B/year appropriated to the Office of the Director, most of its $41.5B in funding will be used to make grants. The NIH, under Francis Collins, the single biggest priority has been to integrate genomic research and testing into the practice of medicine. For that reason genomic-based research, which historically has been the focus of the National Cancer Institute, is now part of almost every NIH Institute's grant interest.
In addition to a restoration of funding for NCI, Congress also appropriated significant increases to the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Disease and the National Institute of Aging. Congress' direction to the later organization includes an emphasis on Alzheimer's research.
More NIH grant money means more sequencing and greater use of ILMN boxes, the genetics community’s standard device, as well as all the consumables that keep those boxes running.
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Emily Evans
Managing Director – Health Policy
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