By George Cahlink, Editor www.CQ.com 

The weeks ahead will bring debate on funding for the largest federal research programs, including the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation.

Democrats are planning to use action on spending bills in the Senate and House in coming weeks to make a clear case on differences with Republicans on funding for scientific research. The markups of the House and Senate C-J-S bills will touch on funding for the NSF, NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and smaller research agenices. The Senate C-J-S bill would provide $4.9 billion more than the House measure.

It’s still unclear when House Republicans will unveil their plan for funding NIH. The overall House Labor-Health and Human Services-Education spending bill would provide $42.5 billion less than what their Senate counterparts have allocated for that bill. Senate Republicans have joined Democrats in calls to protect the NIH as much as possible from a second round of annual sequester cuts.

President Barack Obama proposed increasing NIH funding to $31.3 billion for fiscal 2014, up by $471 million from the pre-sequester amount for the current budget year. Jerry Moran of Kansas, the ranking Republican on the Labor-HHS-Education panel, said Congress must “prioritize” NIH spending even as it faces “difficult spending choices.” “It is crucial that our next generation of biomedical researchers, the ones who will develop better and most cost-effective health care, remained in the scientific research field,” Moran said.