The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill on Tuesday night that would authorize increased spending and accountability for the National Institutes of Health. The measure passed, 414 to 2.

However, the bill’s chances of becoming law are uncertain. There is no Senate version of the legislation, and senators are unlikely to consider one this week. The Senate will then recess until after the November elections, when a lame-duck session will convene. But that session will be crammed with other unfinished legislative business, including must-pass appropriations bills to finance the federal government in 2007. The House bill, HR 6164, will expire when the current session adjourns, in December.

House leaders did not allow amendments to the bill but did permit about 40 minutes of debate, all of which was highly complimentary of the NIH, the largest source of funds for university research. That bonhomie was notable given that fiscal conservatives have previously suggested that the NIH, whose budget was doubled from 1998 to 2003, had shown insufficient results for the money. What’s more, a majority of the House voted in 2004 and again in 2005 to block NIH financing for several academic research projects with which members disagreed.

The skeptics were evidently won over because the bill is meant to enhance the agency’s public disclosure about its grant making. In exchange, the measure would authorize spending increases of no more than 5 percent annually from 2007 to 2009 (The Chronicle, September 21). However, House Democrats said during the debate that the Republican leadership had underfinanced the NIH since 2004.

As with all authorization bills, Congress would have to follow through with appropriations bills for the spending increases to actually take place.