July 20, 2001

House Panel Approves NIH Tax Refund Bill

The House Energy and Commerce Committee July 18 passed the Biomedical Research Voluntary Option Act (H.R. 1340), which would allow taxpayers to designate part or all of their income tax refund for use in biomedical research conducted by the National Institutes of Health. The Health Subcommittee held a hearing June 27 on the bill sponsored by Chairman Michael Bilirakis (R-Fla.).

Also approved by the committee were bills that would expand research at NIH for Duchenne's muscular dystrophy (H.R. 717) and aid the distribution of the flu vaccine (H.R. 943), and resolutions urging increased research for juvenile diabetes and supporting a National Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy month.