Money to help with the battle against chronic wasting disease is weaving through the congressional pipeline in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. House later this year will consider budgets that contain $19 million to fight the disease; a dramatic jump in spending that includes more money to research the fatal brain disease.
So says Representative Dave Obey, a key Democrat on the House budget committee.
The money is for spending that begins Oct. 1.
Obey says a year ago, Congress appropriated only $750,000 in direct federal funding for the disease.
Obey says the House Appropriations Committee has approved a measure that gives the U.S. Agriculture Department $16 million to fight the disease.
A separate measure budgets nearly $3 million for the U.S. Geological Survey to study the disease's impact on free-ranging wildlife.
