House Overrides Reagan’s Veto of Bill for Biomedical Research

The House voted 380 to 32 Tuesday to override President Reagan’s veto of a bill reauthorizing biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health for three years.

It was only the fifth time since Reagan took office in 1981 that the House has managed to get the necessary two-thirds of the members present to support an override.

The override measure was sent to the Senate, which had passed the three-year, $7.7-billion bill unanimously. Last week, 78 senators wrote Reagan, urging him to sign the measure.

Republicans Freed

In the House, opposition to Reagan was so strong that even Republican leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois told his party colleagues that they were “pretty free to do their thing.”

Although Michel said it was normally his job to marshal Republicans in the Democratic-controlled House behind Reagan, he did not feel the need in this case. The House had originally passed the bill, 395 to 10.

When he vetoed the bill Friday, Reagan said money was not the object. Instead, he complained that the bill was “overloaded with objectionable provisions that seriously undermine and threaten the ability of NIH to manage itself.”

Other Complaint

He also complained that the bill would give Congress too much say in how the scientists at NIH should do their jobs.

In announcing the veto, Reagan said he supported an arthritis institute, one of the bill’s provisions, but opposed a nursing center at NIH because he said that would distract doctors away from the institutes’ scientific slant.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of a House health subcommittee, said Reagan’s veto indicated that he was giving up on the fight against diseases.