WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The White House said on Wednesday it was open to working with Congress on a bill that would invest in disease research and would be paid for with sales of oil from U.S. emergency reserves.
The House of Representatives is considering a bipartisan bill that would increase funding for the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration to boost research and approvals of new treatments for rare diseases.
Funding for the measure would come from selling 80 million barrels of oil a year over eight years from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, emergency stockpiles that currently hold more than 690 million barrels of oil.
The White House expressed general support for the bill but expressed concern about increasing funding without addressing mandatory spending caps known as sequestration.
“The administration reiterates the critical importance of making the investments necessary to modernize the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and ensure it continues to support U.S. energy security,” the White House said in a statement.
The Energy Department has said it wants to improve the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s infrastructure and make other changes to the way the reserve can be tapped.
The House is expected to vote on the bill as early as this week. But it could face obstacles in the Senate, where the head of the Senate Energy Committee, Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, has said she opposes using money from any drawdown of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for purposes other than energy security.