funding for the nih has often been a source of contention in congress, serving as a proxy for the political currents of the time. in 1992, the nih encompassed nearly 1 percent of the federal government's operating budget and controlled more than 50 percent of all funding for health research, and 85 percent of all funding for health studies in universities.[15] while government funding for research in other disciplines has been increasing at a rate similar to inflation since the 1970s, research funding for the nih nearly tripled through the 1990s and early 2000s, but has remained relatively stagnant since then.[16]