Reagan Opposed Listing Priorities : Senate Overrides Veto of Health Research Bill

The Senate overrode a presidential veto Wednesday night, completing final passage of a $2.3-billion biomedical research bill that will set up a new institute on arthritis and a nursing research center.

The Senate voted 89 to 7 to follow the lead of the House, which on Nov. 12 voted overwhelmingly to override President Reagan’s veto of a bill that would reauthorize selected National Institutes of Health programs through 1988.

The key issues in dispute were not money, but charges that Congress was trying to be too specific in setting research priorities and opposition to Congress’ establishment of a nursing center at NIH. Congress had compromised by eliminating the proposed nursing institute.

Goldwater Backed Bill

It was the fifth time since Reagan took office in 1981 that Congress overturned a presidential veto. The NIH bill is the 41st bill to be vetoed by Reagan and the second this year.

Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.), a victim of arthritis, urged the Senate to approve the legislation, noting that for years the plight of 76 million Americans with arthritis has been ignored.

“For years, arthritis research got not much more than a nod,” Goldwater said.

The White House veto had angered Republican backers of the bill, who said they believed a final compromise bill accommodated Administration objections to previous versions.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said Congress worked with the White House to draft the final version.

Shocked by Veto

“Frankly, I was really shocked to find they vetoed the bill in spite of all the efforts we made. I felt we had commitments on this matter,” he said.

In addition to creating a new institute on arthritis and a nursing research center, the legislation establishes guidelines for research involving human fetuses and animals and sets certain research priorities, including Alzheimer’s disease and spinal cord injury.

Reagan said he vetoed the bill because it “manifests an effort to exert undue political control over decisions regarding scientific research, thus limiting the ability of NIH to set this nation’s biomedical research agenda.”