US lawmakers drew lines in the sand last month over spending for science. On 14 February, President Barack Obama released his administration's vision for next year's federal budget, which included requested increases of around $750 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), $900 million for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and $150 million for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) relative to the 2010 enacted budget. The White House also proposed to cut discretionary spending at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by approximately $600 million, although the agency will see some $750 million in new money from the health care law passed last year. A bill released three days earlier from the Republican-controlled House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee proposed to trim all these agencies budgets by at least 5% relative to 2010 spending levels.
The NIH is moving ahead with its plan to dissolve the National Center for Research Resources, which funds tools and training for scientists, and open a new center devoted to translational research. In mid-January, agency officials released details of the proposed reshuffle—slated for 1 October—which involves, among other measures, transferring the Clinical and Translational Science Awards program to the new National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. Many onlookers applauded the changeover, but critics voiced concern about the haste of move. “I think the process has been rushed, and the [scientific] community is understandably concerned, frustrated and a bit angry,” says Jeremy Berg, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. See go.nature.com/9tMVfw for more.
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