Brief History of NIH Funding: Fact Sheet
Judith A. Johnson
Specialist in Biomedical Policy
December 23, 2013
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
R43341
Brief History of NIH Funding: Fact Sheet
Contents
Brief History of NIH Funding ......................................................................................................... 1
Figures
Figure 1. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Appropriations, FY1994-FY2014 request ............... 3
Tables
Table 1. NIH Appropriations, FY1994 – FY2014 Request.............................................................. 4
Contacts
Author Contact Information............................................................................................................. 5
Congressional Research Service
Brief History of NIH Funding: Fact Sheet
Brief History of NIH Funding
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary federal agency charged with conducting
and supporting biomedical and behavioral research. Its activities cover a wide range of basic,
clinical, and translational research, focused on particular diseases, areas of human health and
development, or more fundamental aspects of biomedical research. Its mission also includes
research training and health information collection and dissemination.1 About 83% of the NIH
budget funds extramural research through grants, contracts, and other awards.2 This funding
supports research performed by more than 300,000 non-federal scientists and technical personnel
who work at more than 2,500 universities, hospitals, medical schools, and other research
institutions around the country and abroad. About 11% of the agency’s budget supports intramural
research performed by NIH scientists and non-employee trainees in the NIH laboratories and
Clinical Center. The remaining 6% funds research management, support, and facilities’ needs.
Almost all of NIH’s funding is provided in the annual Departments of Labor, Health and Human
Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations act. In addition to its regular annual
appropriations, NIH received a total of $10.4 billion in supplemental FY2009 appropriations in
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 (P.L. 111-5). ARRA funds were
made available for obligation for two years; $4.95 billion was obligated in FY2009, and $5.45
billion in FY2010.3
Table 1 outlines NIH program level funding over the past 20 years. Between FY1994 and
FY1998, funding for NIH grew modestly from $11.0 billion to $13.7 billion. Over the next five
years, Congress almost doubled the NIH budget to $27.1 billion in FY2003. In each of these
years, the agency received annual funding increases of 14% to 16%. Since FY2003, however,
NIH funding has increased more gradually. Funding peaked in FY2010 before declining in
FY2011, and again in FY2013.
These funding trends are illustrated in Figure 1 in both current and constant (i.e., inflation-
adjusted) 2003 dollars. The top half of Figure 1 illustrates NIH funding in current dollars over
the 20-year period of FY1994 through FY2014 (budget request). Increases during the post-
doubling period have been between about 1% and 3% each year, with three exceptions:
• the FY2006 total was 0.1% lower than the previous year, the first time that the
NIH appropriation had decreased since FY1970;
• the FY2011 total, provided under a full-year continuing resolution, was 1.0%
below the previous year; and
• the FY2013 total, provided in the Consolidated and Further Continuing
Appropriations Act, 2013 (P.L. 113-6), was reduced by the March 2013
sequestration and was 5% lower than the prior year.4
1 For further information on NIH, see CRS Report R43304, Public Health Service Agencies: Overview and Funding,
coordinated by Amalia K. Corby-Edwards and C. Stephen Redhead.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Program level funding as shown in Figure 1 excludes transfers among agencies of the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS). In April 2013 such a transfer further reduced NIH funding by $173 million, for a final FY2013
operating level of $29.151 billion.
Congressional Research Service
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Brief History of NIH Funding: Fact Sheet
The lower half of Figure 1 portrays NIH funding adjusted for inflation (in constant 2003 dollars)
using the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI).5 It shows that the
purchasing power of NIH funding (non-ARRA) peaked in FY2003 (the last year of the five-year
doubling period) and has steadily declined in the years since. By FY2008, funding had dropped
below the FY2002 level. In constant 2003 dollars, FY2013 funding was 22% lower than the
FY2003 level.
5 The index is developed each year for NIH by the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the Department of Commerce. It
reflects the increase in prices of the resources needed to conduct biomedical research, including personnel services,
supplies, and equipment. It indicates how much the NIH budget must change to maintain purchasing power. See “NIH
Price Indexes,” at http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/gbiPriceIndexes.html.
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Brief History of NIH Funding: Fact Sheet
Figure 1. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Appropriations,
FY1994-FY2014 request
Program Level Funding in Current and Constant (2003) Dol ars
Sources: Adapted by CRS from NIH Budget Office, Appropriations History by Institute/Center (1938 to
Present), at http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/approp_hist.html, and budget justification documents. Inflation
adjustment reflects the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI), updated Jan. 15, 2013,
http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/gbiPriceIndexes.html.
Notes: Definition of NIH Program Level may differ from that in other CRS reports and congressional
appropriations committee reports. Program Level includes al budget authority except appropriations transferred
to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (FY2002-FY2011). Also excludes other transfers to and from
HHS accounts in some years. ARRA supplementary funding is from the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009, P.L. 111-5.
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Brief History of NIH Funding: Fact Sheet
Table 1. NIH Appropriations, FY1994 – FY2014 Request
Program Level Funding in Current and Constant (2003) Dol ars (bil ions)
Program
Program
Level
% Loss
Fiscal Year
Level %
Change
Constant ’03 $
% Change
below ‘03
1994 $10.956
$14.608
1995 11.300
3.1%
14.562
-0.3%
1996
11.928 5.6%
14.988 2.9%
1997
12.741 6.8%
15.576 3.9%
1998
13.675 7.3%
16.170 3.8%
1999
15.629 14.3% 17.914 10.8%
2000
17.841 14.1% 19.714 10.0%
2001
20.459 14.7% 21.879 11.0%
2002
23.296 13.9% 24.115 10.2%
2003
27.067 16.2% 27.067 12.2%
2004
27.888 3.0% 26.886 -.07% -0.7%
2005
28.495 2.2% 26.443 -1.6% -2.3%
2006
28.461 -0.1% 25.243 -4.5% -6.7%
2007
29.030 2.0% 24.806 -1.7% -8.4%
2008
29.312 1.0% 23.927 -3.5% -11.6%
2009
30.245 3.2%
23.987 0.2%
-11.4%
2010
30.938 2.3% 23.825 -0.7% -12.0%
2011
30.619 -1.0% 22.942 -3.7% -15.2%
2012
30.861 0.8% 22.795 -0.6% -15.8%
2013
29.316 -5.0% 21.136 -7.3% -21.9%
2014
(request)
31.323 6.8%
21.991 4.0%
-18.8%
NIH Appropriations including ARRA Supplement
2009 35.119
27.915
2010 36.384
28.019
Source: Adapted by CRS from NIH Budget Office, Appropriations History by Institute/Center (1938 to
Present), at http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/approp_hist.html, and budget justification documents. Inflation
adjustment reflects the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI), updated January 15, 2013,
http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/gbiPriceIndexes.html.
Notes: Definition of NIH Program Level may differ from that in other CRS reports and congressional
appropriations committee reports. Program Level includes al budget authority, excluding appropriations
transfers to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (FY2002-FY2011). Also excludes other transfers to
and from HHS accounts in some years. ARRA supplementary funding is from the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009, P.L. 111-5.
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Brief History of NIH Funding: Fact Sheet
Author Contact Information
Judith A. Johnson
Specialist in Biomedical Policy
jajohnson@crs.loc.gov, 7-7077
Congressional Research Service
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