Capitol Hill In Brief

Harkin on NIH funding: Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said at a March 19 appropriations subcommittee hearing he and ranking minority member Arlen Specter, R-Pa., will not allow proposed cuts in NIH funding. President Bush's proposed fiscal 2008 budget would cut NIH spending by $328 mil., but Harkin said the actual reduction will be about $529 mil. because NIH has to "pick up the entire tab for the global AIDS fund rather than sharing it with the State Department." Specter said with a federal budget of $2.9 tril., an allocation of less than $30 bil. to NIH is "scandalous." NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. said the cut would force the institute to reduce its number of clinical trials because they are "extremely expensive." Harkin said the subcommittee will hear from the directors of all NIH centers and institutes later this spring...