Tom Harkin actually said...

I'm not going to turn this into politics. We want to be above politics. But we're going to have to deal with politics.

Since fiscal year 2003, the end of the 5-year doubling effort, NIH funding has dropped in real terms by 22 percent.

Do you expect the same situation in future years of the initiative?

I'm concerned that when money gets that tight, there's a tendency to shy away from awarding ideas that are thinking outside the box.