The Cross-Border Biotech Blog

Initial reporting (NYT, WSJ) on the bill coming out of the House-Senate conference committee this evening indicates that the $789 billion package will include most of the Bio-related provisions:

• It keeps the additional $6.5 billion for the NIH that was in the Senate version;
• The $1.1 billion for Comparative Effectiveness is also still in; and
• There is a total of $19 billion for health information technology, including electronic medical records.

Update 10am: More details from ScienceInsider based on Pelosi’s fact sheet:

• The Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which supports US physical science, will receive $1.6 billion.
• $400 million will be provided to fund a new mini agency within DOE called the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy. Obama’s energy secretary, Steve Chu, is a fan. Now congress has bestowed their blessing — and big money –on his dream energy program.
• NASA will get $1 billion including $400 million for climate change research.
• The National Institute of Standards and Technology will receive $580 million.
• The National Science Foundation would receive the full $3 billion increase that the House had passed last month. That’s a 50% boost to its $6 billion budget. The breakdown of that number is not clear, but the House version contained $2 billion more for research grants; $900 million for three infrastructure programs, including a revived $200 million extramural facilities competition; and $100 million for two education programs.

Update 5pm:

• The $3 billion in NSF funding breaks down as follows: $2.5 billion for research (peer-reviewed proposals); $100 million for the university research instrumentation program; and $400 million for national labs.
• The NIST money is for infrastructure: $220 million for lab equipment and $360 million for facilities.
• USDA gets $850 million for infrastructure.
• NOAA gets $600 million for facilities and equipment.