The Daily Transcript

From the Federation of American Scientists for Experimental Biology (for all you non-biologists who are wondering who FASEB is):

Urge Congress to Support Research Increase for NIH and NSF Depends On It! ACTION REQUIRED NOW! The 2 Most Important Weeks for NIH and NSF Funding in FY2008

Dear FASEB Society Members:

The next two weeks are the most important for determining the level of appropriations that can be attained in FY2008 for the research agencies we support (NIH, NSF, DOE, VA, USDA and NASA).

The Budget Committees are meeting this week to finalize the level of discretionary spending that appropriations committee members will have available to allocate among the many discretionary programs, including NIH, NSF DOE, VA, USDA and NASA. In addition, once the appropriations committees are provided with a total discretionary number, the House and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairmen, David Obey (D-WI) and Robert Byrd (D-WV), respectively, will immediately provide allocations to the twelve appropriations subcommittees.

As you know, FASEB and the broader research community have been advocating for a 6.7% increase for NIH in FY2008. However, the only way this goal can possibly be attained is by ensuring that the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations subcommittee receives an allocation increase (over FY2007) of something close to $14 billion.

Therefore, please send the following e-mail to your respective House and Senate Members urging them to support the Congressional budget proposal to provide an additional $22 billion for discretionary spending (over what the President proposed in his FY2008 budget), and request that they encourage Appropriations Committee Chairmen Obey and Byrd to provide a $14 billion increase to the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations subcommittee in FY2008. These increases will allow for a 6.7% increase in NIH's budget in FY2008.