A proposed 6% pay rise for federally funded US postdocs is “far from a done deal”, said Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), at the US National Postdoctoral Association's annual meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 12–14 March. Collins said that some congressional appropriators have expressed reservations about President Barack Obama's proposed change because of the US$1.4-trillion 2011 federal budget deficit. If implemented, the pay increase would be the first significant rise in several years. Collins encouraged meeting attendees to continue to campaign for higher pay.