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APPENDIX A / 85 Appendixes 85
Appendix A Senate Report Language for the Prospective Study on Allocation of Federal R&D Funding Excerpt from report language accompanying Public Law 103-733: Research ReportâThe [Senate Appropriations] Committee is concerned that at a time when there is such opportunity to understand and cure disease, funding for health research supported by NIH in the next fiscal year is held to below the inflation index for medical research due to budget constraints. Similarly, other Federal research agencies are confronted with constrained resources resulting from the virtual freeze in discretionary outlays. This freeze will make decisions over how to best allocate funding for research and development in the future all the more difficult as research opportunities collide with other governmental responsibilities required for preserving, protecting the health, safety and economic security of our citizen [sic]. These realities have compelled the Committee to consider the composition of the overall Federal Government research and development budget, which currently totals more than $70,000,000,000 a year. In particular, the Com- mittee is concerned whether that research budget is designed to meet new national security concerns, military, economic, and health, that confront our Nation in a post-cold war world. The Committee is concerned, for example, that medical research is not at its optimal level of priority and support relative to its importance to national security. Because of these new circumstances, the Committee has provided [$750,000] within the Office of the director [of NIH] to commission a study by the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. The study should consider the criteria that should be used in judging the appropriate allocation of funds to research and development activi- ties, the appropriate balance among different types of institutions that conduct such research, and the means of assuring continued objectivity in the allocation process. The academies and Institute should consult with the Office of Science and Technology Policy in planning the framework for the report. The academies and the Institute should submit the report to both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees by December 31, 1995. 87