Funding for the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is in limbo as President Bush and Congress fight over the country's financial priorities. On 15 November, the House of Representatives failed to override a presidential veto of a spending bill that includes the NIH along with other health, education and labour programmes.

The action means that the $28.9-billion budget of the NIH will not get a proposed 3.1% increase in 2008, putting the agency on the road to a far smaller increase or even a cut from its 2007 funding level. The House fell two votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.

House appropriations chairman David Obey (Democrat, Wisconsin) says that shaving billions from the huge bill to avoid another presidential veto will mean cutting at least $700 million from what would have been a $1.1 billion increase for the NIH.