The National MS Society continues to aggressively pursue a 5% federal
funding increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in
fiscal year 2007 (FY '07), despite recent setbacks. Your help will
be needed as this issue moves forward and Congress attempts to finish
the appropriations process by October. In the coming weeks, we will
follow up to let you know how to keep our message front and center.
Recently, the appropriations committees charged with allocating
annual funding for the NIH passed their appropriations bills.
Unfortunately, the funding proposals in both the House of
Representatives and Senate are so low that the NIH will not be able
to keep up with inflation or make modest investments in new research.
Of the $4.1 billion increase over FY '06 that the House designated
for Labor-HHS appropriations, nothing was allocated to the NIH. Of
the $7.1 billion Labor-HHS budget increase that the Society
successfully supported, and the Senate overwhelmingly approved
earlier this year, only a 0.8% increase ($220 million) was included
for the NIH in FY '07. These figures are much lower than what we
expected. At our Public Policy Conference in May, and throughout the
legislative year, the Society joined the patient community and
medical research organizations in a collective request to Congress
for a 5% funding increase for the NIH in FY '07. This modest
increase is necessary for the NIH to simply continue ongoing work.

For more information please visit:
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/nih_factsheet.asp