Washington — Science researchers may not be getting everything they want from Congress in the economic-stimulus bill. But they’re getting a lot.

The Senate yesterday approved an $838-billion stimulus bill and now needs to reconcile it with the $820-billion version passed earlier by the House of Representatives. About two-thirds of the House bill consists of spending measures, as opposed to tax cuts, while the Senate devotes nearly 60 percent of its cost to spending measures.

Among the spending measures, the Senate proposes $17.8-billion for federal research and development, compared with $13.2-billion in the House bill, according to an analysis by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Much of the difference involves the level of support for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health. The Senate is proposing $10.4-billion in support for the NIH, while the House is offering only $3.9-billion, the AAAS analysis shows.

Either way, scientists in a variety of research fields can look forward to an infusion of federal money once the House and Senate negotiate a final compromise version of the stimulus bill and send it to President Obama for his signature.

“For the science and engineering community,” the AAAS says in its analysis, “the two versions of the stimulus bill are a welcome acknowledgment that scientific research, often regarded as long-term and future-oriented, also has a role to play in short-term economic recovery.” —Paul Basken