Obama's five billion dollar cancer research push

President Barack Obama is directing five billion dollars in funds from
his huge economic stimulus package to promote cutting-edge scientific
research on diseases like cancer and AIDS. Here, the President is
accompanied by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius, right, tours an oncology laboratory at the National Institute
of Health in Bethesda, Md., At left is Dr. Marston Linehan.
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

President Barack Obama is directing five billion dollars in funds from his huge economic stimulus package to promote cutting-edge scientific research on diseases like cancer and AIDS.

The president announced the science package during a visit to the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, outside Washington. The package creates some 12,000 grants that, Obama says, will create tens of thousands of jobs over the next two years.

"We know that this kind of investment will also lead to new jobs: tens of thousands of jobs conducting research, manufacturing and supplying medical equipment, and building and modernizing laboratories and research facilities," Obama said in remarks released by the White House.

The bulk of the awards will fund medical and clinical research projects, especially HIV-AIDS, (A) H1N1 Flu and cancer. Congress passed Obama's 787-billion-dollar stimulus plan in February. The plan contains a mix of tax cuts and infrastructure spending, focused on creating millions of jobs and boosting the US economy out of recession.