U.S. Senator Dick Durbin is encouraged by recent developments in Congress when it comes to funding medical research. In a visit to Springfield's Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, he noted funding for medical research at the National Institutes of Health is on the rise.

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That research would involve the scientific and biomedical arenas and he says that will reverse a decades-long downward trend in funding.

The funding boost is part of a $2 billion increase he was able to secure in the Omnibus Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2016.