The following is from the NIH itself, it is a 40 page report on the agency......any cuts they attempted were at the margins only and weren't carried out.
You may remember that when Obama took office his priorities changed to things like climate change (and it's effect on health), alternative energy (and it's effect on heath), the biology of gayness (and it's effect on fat kids) and etc. Further, there was a marked lack of interest in perusing the Bush administration's interest in really helping the plight of the people on the dark continent, and we slowly withdrew from efforts there as they were not of the same priority as large sugary drinks.
https://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=11980Congress doubled the NIH budget between FY1998 and FY2003 and more recently provided a
temporary two-year funding increase through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009 (P.L. 111-5) after several years of low or no growth in the post-doubling period. In health
reform legislation (P.L. 111-148), the 111th Congress directed NIH to implement the new Cures
Acceleration Network (CAN) in order to support ground-breaking advances in basic research and
facilitate FDA review of CAN-funded cures. However, the legislation mandates that CAN be
funded via a specific appropriationnot through the general NIH appropriationand the current
budget outlook has worsened in the new Congress, especially for discretionary programs.
The 2010 election sent to Congress more fiscal conservatives, particularly in the House, who have
promised to focus on deficit reduction and shrinking the federal budget during the 112th Congress.
Some Members have suggested rolling back federal funding for many discretionary programs to
FY2008 levelsthis would change the NIH budget from current funding of $30.9 million to
$29.3 million. According to the House Appropriations Committee, H.R. 1, the Full Year
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011, would reduce the NIH budget by $1.63 billion compared to
the FY2010 level and by $1.57 billion compared with the FY2011 request. In the State of the
Union speech, however, President Obama indicted his unwillingness to scale back the national
investment in research and development, and said that maintaining our leadership in research
and technology is crucial to Americas success. The speech specifically stated that in the budget
proposal for FY2012, well invest in biomedical research. For FY2012 the Obama
Administration has requested $32 billion for NIH, an increase of $745 million (2.4%) over
FY2010.
Other issues of concern to Congress and the research community include
increasing the movement of basic science discoveries, via translational research,
into new preventives, diagnostics, therapies, and cures;