I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 531 
To prioritize funding for the National Institutes of Health to discover treat-
ments and cures, to maintain global leadership in medical innovation, 
and to restore the purchasing power the NIH had after the historic 
doubling campaign that ended in fiscal year 2003. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 26, 2015 
Ms. DELAURO (for herself, Mr. HIGGINS, and Mr. KING of New York) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the 
Budget 
A BILL 
To prioritize funding for the National Institutes of Health 
to discover treatments and cures, to maintain global lead-
ership in medical innovation, and to restore the pur-
chasing power the NIH had after the historic doubling 
campaign that ended in fiscal year 2003. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accelerating Bio-
medical Research Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
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(1) The National Institutes of Health (referred 
to in this section as the ‘‘NIH’’) is the leading bio-
medical research entity in the world. It supports sci-
entists in every State who are pursuing treatments 
and cures to prevent and reduce human suffering. 
(2) Thanks in large part to NIH-funded re-
search, Americans today are living longer and 
healthier lives. Life expectancy in the United States 
has jumped from 47 years in 1900 to nearly 79 
years today. Deaths from heart attack have fallen by 
more than 60 percent over the past 40 years, and 
deaths from cancer are falling about 1 percent each 
year. 
(3) NIH is vital to the United States economy. 
The NIH extramural program supports around 
50,000 competitive research grants and 300,000 sci-
entists and research personnel at more than 2,500 
universities, medical schools, and other research in-
stitutions across our 50 States. 
(4) Economists have estimated that every $1 
invested in NIH generates more than $2 in local 
economic growth. Bioscience companies in the 
United States, many of which depend on basic re-
search conducted by NIH, directly employ 1.6 mil-
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lion people, and indirectly support another 6.2 mil-
lion jobs. 
(5) NIH research is critical to the Nation’s 
long-term fiscal health. Alzheimer’s disease currently 
costs 
the 
United 
States 
an 
estimated 
$200,000,000,000 a year. If no progress is made to 
cure or delay the onset of this disease, the cost will 
rise to well over $1,000,000,000,000 a year in to-
day’s dollars by 2050. 
(6) Cancer remains the leading cause of death 
by disease for children in the United States. More 
than 60 percent of children with cancer participate 
in NIH-funded clinical trials. 
(7) NIH enhances our national security by 
funding research on medical countermeasures for 
bioterrorism, new and emerging diseases, and deadly 
pandemics. 
(8) The historic, 5-year doubling of Federal 
funding for NIH ended in fiscal year 2003. Despite 
the widely recognized benefits of NIH-funded re-
search, NIH funding has declined by nearly 25 per-
cent since then, when adjusted for inflation. 
(9) The success rate of applications for NIH 
funding is near an all-time low. Fifteen years ago, 
NIH funded about 1-in-3 meritorious research pro-
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posals. Today, that rate has fallen to about 1-in-6, 
meaning that thousands of promising research ideas 
proposed every year are never pursued. 
(10) The decline in the NIH success rate has 
been especially challenging for young researchers. In 
1980, a researcher could expect to receive her first 
R01 grant at age 38. Today, the average investi-
gator must wait until age 45, a delay that is causing 
many of our brightest young scientists to leave the 
field. 
(11) America’s global scientific leadership is 
now at risk. Between 2004 and 2012, the United 
States share of global investment declined by about 
13 percent while the share of Asian economies grew 
by 7 percent. The Organisation for Economic Co-op-
eration and Development projects that China will 
outspend the United States on research and develop-
ment by 2020. 
(12) Budget cap adjustments are used by Con-
gress to prioritize spending that produces economic 
growth and reduces costs that contribute to the Fed-
eral debt. 
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SEC. 3. CAP ADJUSTMENT. 
Section 251(b)(2) of the Balanced Budget and Emer-
gency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 901(b)(2)) 
is amended— 
(1) by redesignating subparagraph (D) as sub-
paragraph (E); and 
(2) by inserting after subparagraph (C), the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(D) 
NATIONAL
INSTITUTES
OF 
HEALTH.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—If a bill or joint 
resolution making appropriations for a fis-
cal year is enacted that specifies amounts 
for the National Institutes of Health at the 
Department of Health and Human Serv-
ices (75–9915–1–1–552), then the adjust-
ments for that fiscal year shall be the 
amount of additional new budget authority 
provided in that Act for such programs for 
that fiscal year, but shall not exceed— 
‘‘(I) 
for 
fiscal 
year 
2016, 
$3,000,000,000 in additional new 
budget authority; 
‘‘(II) 
for 
fiscal 
year 
2017, 
$6,300,000,000 in additional new 
budget authority; 
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‘‘(III) for fiscal year 2018, 
$8,450,000,000 in additional new 
budget authority; 
‘‘(IV) 
for 
fiscal 
year 
2019, 
$10,740,000,000 in additional new 
budget authority; 
‘‘(V) 
for 
fiscal 
year 
2020, 
$13,160,000,000 in additional new 
budget authority; and 
‘‘(VI) 
for 
fiscal 
year 
2021, 
$15,730,000,000 in additional new 
budget authority. 
‘‘(ii) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this 
subparagraph: 
‘‘(I) ADDITIONAL
NEW
BUDGET 
AUTHORITY.—The 
term 
‘additional 
new budget authority’ means the 
amount provided for a fiscal year, in 
excess of $29,369,000,000, in an ap-
propriation Act and specified to sup-
port the National Institutes of Health. 
‘‘(II) NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF 
HEALTH.—The term ‘National Insti-
tutes of Health’ means the appropria-
tions accounts that support the var-
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