On June 28, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $2 billion funding increase to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of its Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Department of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education funding bill. The boost would bring NIH funding to $39.1 billion—a 5.4% increase over FY18 funding levels. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) would receive $6.147 billion in FY19, including $400 million to continue activities for the Biden Cancer Initiative, as authorized to under the 21st Century Cures Act. The bill also provides “sufficient additional funding” to implement the recently passed Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access and Research (STAR) ACT—legislation that ASCO enthusiastically supported.
