(BETA) News Briefs: Who Has Budget Authority over AIDS Research?


(BETA) News Briefs: Who Has Budget Authority over AIDS Research?

Bulletin of Experimental Treatments for AIDS, No. 26 September 1995
Ronald Baker, PhD

In 1993 Congress gave the NIH's Office of AIDS Research (OAR) authority over how $1 billion in AIDS research funds should be allocated throughout the separate institutes of the NIH. The same House appropriations committee that increased NIH funding for 1996 has now rescinded the 1993 arrangement. Some AIDS activists and scientists oppose the new ruling, which they say undermines the OAR and its hard-won authority to direct the course of AIDS research.

Others disagree that AIDS research will suffer from the shift of budget authority away from OAR. Proponents of the subcommittee's new ruling say that placing AIDS research funding into the overall NIH budget has distinct advantages for AIDS research: one major advantage is to remove the budget as a "sitting duck target" for people who oppose AIDS research funding. If the funds are dispersed throughout the different institutes of NIH, it will be difficult or impossible to single out AIDS research dollars for close scrutiny and criticism.

As the new custodian of the AIDS research budget, NIH director Harold Varmus says he will carry out the recommendations of the Levine committee, a panel appointed by OAR to evaluate the NIH AIDS research budget. It is unclear at press time when the full House of representatives will vote on the NIH appropriation.


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This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1995. AEGIS.