White House wants extra $1B to NIH as GOP eyes cut

“Innovation in this field creates and sustains companies, products and jobs,” the Obama administration wrote in its budget proposal.

The administration is also looking for more than a half-billion-dollar increase to the Medicare agency in charge of implementing last year’s healthcare reform law. The White House wants $4.4 billion for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, up from $3.7 billion in fiscal 2010.

The budget also anticipates a $1.1 billion increase in total program resources for the Food and Drug Administration, which needs funding to implement the overhaul of the food safety system approved by Congress late last year. The administration is asking for $2.7 billion for the agency, up about $175 million in fiscal 2010. Meanwhile, it expects that program resources will jump from $3.3 billion in fiscal 2010 to $4.4 billion in 2012.

“The administration will work with Congress to enact additional food safety fees to support the full implementation of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act,” according to the budget.
 
The White House also wants a big bump for the Administration on Aging, which recently took responsibility for overseeing a new long-term insurance program created by healthcare reform. The budget request increases the office’s funding from $1.5 billion in fiscal 2010 to $2.2 billion in 2012.

The administration is positioning the health information technology office, which is in charge of a nearly $30 billion stimulus program to expand the use of electronic health records, for a major increase, from $42 million in fiscal 2010 to $57 million in 2012. 

A few programs would see significant cuts between 2010 and 2012 under the Obama proposal. The Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund would be slashed from $1.3 billion in 2010 to $595 million. The Health Resources and Services Administration budget would be reduced from $7.5 billion to $6.8 billion, while the Administration for Children and Families would get a $1.2 billion cut from $17.3 billion in 2010.