It seems that better times lie ahead for biomedical funding by the Federal agencies. There is a strong push in the US Congress to double the NIH budget within the next five years (e.g. NY Times, Jan. 6, Editorial). Thus, a 15 % increase in funding is expected per each of these years. Although President Clinton during the past two years made cuts in the NIH budgetfrom the level proposed by the Congress, this time even his budget projects a 7 % increase over the current level. Considering that our politicians are sensitive to voters' opinion, especially during the election year, I appeal to all readers of the Cytometry Board to express your opinion about biomedical funding to your Congress-person and to the White House. Please remeber that total yearly federal support for cancer research (NCI) is equivalent of a cost of a single B2 bomber or a single nuclear powered submarine ($ ~2 billion). Yet every year over 1,200,000 Americans are diagnosed with cancer and over 600,000 die of this disease. This is ten times more deaths that the American casualties during the whole Vietnam war. Statistically, in family of four, one person will develop cancer in his (her) lifetime. Is not it time the Government to change the priorities in funding? I hope that similar as we succeded in 1994 in raising our support of the resolution by US Senators Tom Harkin and Mark Hatfield to increase biomedical funding, the voice of scientits community will be heard again. The US Congress initiative to double NIH funding requires our strong support. Zbigniew Darzynkiewicz
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