By Kim Coghill

Washington Editor

BETHESDA, Md. - In his maiden address to Congress and the American public Tuesday night, President George W. Bush tapped into his audience's emotions by extending a prayer to Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass.), who is suffering from cancer.

The president said an appropriate tribute to Moakley would be doubling the $20 billion-plus budget of the Bethesda, Md.-based National Institutes of Health by the year 2003. And although Bush's first proposed budget doesn't include such a major hike for the NIH, it does represent a 13.8 percent, or $2.8 billion, increase over this year's $20.3 billion budget, which ends Sept. 30.

Even at 13.8 percent, directors at the NIH are quite pleased, as they stated Wednesday during a press conference led by Tommy Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services.

When asked how the additional funding would be split among the institutes, Thompson said, "That's not up to me to decide. But I will remind you that 75 [percent] to 80 percent of the budget goes out to research and doesn't stay here."

Furthermore, he said, last year the NIH was able to fund only 25 percent of the research applications it received, "So I asked the NIH if they could spend the extra money - and they assured me they could."

Other NIH spokespeople clam up when asked about dispersing another $2.8 billion, saying March is too early to discuss such possibilities - mid-to-late April would be better.

Speaking of dispersing money, Thompson wasn't quick to release details on whether Bush has a plan to drop funding for embryonic stem cell research.

"Our current position is murky because there is an interpretation by one lawyer that if the stem cells are destroyed independently, then research can go on," Thompson said. "Another lawyer may say something different."

Back in September, the NIH finalized rules that prohibit using federal money to pay for derivation of human pluripotent stem cells. However, for the first time, the rules allow government money to be used to research cells after they have been collected. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 24, 2000.)

The deadline for applications for such research money is in two weeks.

About the time that the Clinton team was signing off on the guidelines, then-presidential candidate Bush, under pressure from anti-abortion groups, said he opposed using federal money for research on fetal tissue or on human embryo cells.

And since Bush was elected, scientists have been scrambling to put pressure on the new administration.

In fact, a group of 80 Nobel laureates, led by Michael West and Robert Lanza, two scientists at Worcester, Mass.-based Advanced Cell Technology Inc. (ACT), recently sent Bush a letter urging him to continue funding for research on cells that are collected from unused human embryos slated for disposal at fertility clinics. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 23, 2001.)

Thompson's comment on the issue: "I do know that the deadline for applications is March 15 and if someone asked me about it I would tell them to put in their applications. There is a review process and I've been told it takes about four months. In those four months, the president will look into this."

Senators Strive To Increase Reward For Giving

Sens. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Robert Torricelli (D-NJ), supported by Reps. Jennifer Dunn (R-Wash.) and Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), Tuesday introduced legislation that encourages private donations for medical research.

The legislation initially was introduced last year by Torricelli and the late Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.), hence the name, "Paul Coverdell Medical Research Investment Act."

The bill encourages donations by increasing the amount deductible from charitable contributions to 80 percent of income from the current level of 50 percent.

The IRS estimates that there are 168,000 taxpayers who reach the 50 percent limit annually and more than 53,000 donors who likely would contribute more if the limit were raised.

In the first year, the tax code change could result in nearly $180 million in increased donations and in five years the increase could reach $1 billion.