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A leading organization representing US biomedical researchers has been harshly criticized by a senior Democrat, reflecting the increasingly polarized atmosphere surrounding a bill that aims to boost the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by 9.1 per cent next year.

Congressman David Obey (Democrat, Wisconsin), the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, is charging the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) with calling for a Republican-backed $1.24 billion NIH increase at the expense of the poor. FASEB consists of 17 societies representing 56,000 researchers in the life sciences.

In a letter of 28 July to William Brinkley, president of FASEB, Obey writes that the group has “clearly crossed the line between advocating for your own interests and advocating against the interests of others whose cause is just as imperative. That the ‘others’ in this instance are the weakest and most vulnerable members of society makes your position that much more disappointing.”

Obey's letter was prompted by one from Brinkley to members of Congress urging them to “take whatever⃛ actions are necessary” to ensure passage of the 1999 bill that would boost NIH funding to $14.86 billion.

Democrats are strongly opposed to the bill because it contains $2 billion in cuts to social programmes, including the elimination of a $1.1 billion programme of home heating for the poor and a $871 million summer job training programme for youths (see Nature 394, 108; 1998 & Nature 394, 311; 1998).

Obey appears to have read the FASEB letter as an endorsement of these cuts. “I don't believe your members want the Congress to move in the direction your letter is advocating,” Obey wrote to Brinkley. “[Biomedical researchers] are not men and women who wish to see low income elderly forced to choose between heating and eating.”

But Brinkley has denied Obey's interpretation of his letter. In a response to Obey last week he says that his letter was not intended “to advocate against the interests and programs of other communities”.

Brinkley says he was suggesting that Congress find more money to add to the bill, to restore the cuts to social programmes and to boost the NIH budget. “We don't want to be partisan in any way. We felt that we should support the bill for its broad-based support of health and biomedical research.”

Republican leaders aim to bring the bill to the House floor within two weeks of reconvening on 8 September.