[204]
As one policy initiative, Nixon called for more money for sickle-cell research, treatment, and education in February 1971[205] and signed the National Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act on May 16, 1972.[206][207][c] While Nixon called for increased spending on such high-profile items as sickle-cell disease and for a War on Cancer, at the same time he sought to reduce overall spending at the National Institutes of Health.[208]

Civil rights
The Nixon presidency witnessed the first large-scale integration of public schools in the South.[209] Nixon sought a middle way between the segregationist Wallace and liberal Democrats, whose support of integration was alienating some Southern whites.[210] Hopeful of doing well in the South in 1972, he sought to dispose of desegregation as a political issue before then. Soon after his inauguration, he appointed Vice President Agnew to lead a task force, which worked with local leaders—both white and black—to determine how to integrate local schools. Agnew had little interest in the work, and most of it was done by Labor Secretary George Shultz. Federal aid was available, and a meeting with President Nixon was a possible reward for compliant committees. 