Boehner Touts Increased NIH Funding As Reason To Pass Omnibus Spending Bill

Kevin Glass | December 10, 2014 2:05 PM

In a message today urging Americans to support the upcoming omnibus appropriations bill, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) listed ten reasons why the spending bill would "fulfill the people's priorities, including protecting jobs, stopping wasteful spending, reining in government overreach, and funding our national security."

What's interesting is that Boehner's office touts increased funding for the National Institutes of Health as a reason to support the bill:

9. The bill increases funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Notably, the bill increases funding to boost Alzheimer’s, cancer, and brain research, funds the Gabriella Miller Kids First Act pediatric research initiative, and includes $2.7 billion in emergency funding to address the Ebola crisis.

NIH funding has been something conservatives have tried to target in the past as a place for the government to save money. Sen. Tom Coburn's "wastebook," which chronicles government spending waste, has repeatedly singled out NIH funding as wasteful.

This isn't a new hobbyhorse for conservatives either. In 2005, Townhall columnist Terry Jeffrey pointed out a "yoga study" funded by the NIH as an example of how the bureaucracy of government-funded science was wasteful.