Scientific research is one of the big winners in the $1.3 trillion spending package President Donald Trump just signed.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science estimates that federally-funded research and development will increase 12.8 percent to almost $177 billion — the largest such increase since the economic stimulus bill in 2009.
The budget bill includes an extra $1.1 billion for NASA, preserving the agency's Earth science programs. And the National Institutes of Health is getting around $3 billion more than it had in 2017. That includes a $500 million boost for opioids abuse research and $414 million for Alzheimer's research.
This is a far cry from the steep science budget cuts the Trump administration previously called for. But lawmakers agreed to hike domestic spending and ignore Trump's proposed cuts in exchange for a boost to military spending.
