House, Senate LHHS Subcommittees Complete FY08 Mark-Ups
The House and Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations subcommittees completed a critical early step in the appropriations process in June with the "marking" of their spending bills-the process of prioritizing how the funds will be distributed to the programs funded by the bill.
The House LHHS bill provides $29.65 billion to the National Institutes of Health, an increase of $750 million, or 2.6%, above the current year's funding level and $1.029 billion, or 3.6%, above the president's budget.
The House bill also increases the amount of money to be transferred from NIH to the Global HIV/AIDS Fund from $99 million in FY07 to $300 million in FY08. As a result, the net increase to the NIH budget in the House bill is $549 million, or 1.9%, over FY07.
The full House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up the bill the week of July 9, and the bill is targeted for consideration on the House floor the week of July 16.
Rep. David Obey (WI), chair of the House LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee and the full Appropriations Committee, characterized the bill as a major statement of Congressional priorities for the year. While acknowledging the bill is not perfect, he noted it is not possible to make up for what he described as "12 years of neglect" in one year.
The Senate LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee would provide $29.9 billion for the NIH in FY08. This increase is $1 billion, or 3.5%, over current year funding and $250 million more than the amount approved by the House subcommittee.
Factoring in the increase in the Global HIV/AIDS Fund transfer from NIH, the NIH funding level in the Senate bill is $799 million, or 2.8%, over FY07. The full Senate Appropriations Committee has approved the bill.
The NIH advocacy community, including the Campaign for Medical Research, has unified around a requested increase of 6.7% for FY08. Failure to at least keep pace with biomedical inflation, projected to be 3.7% in FY08, will force cuts in life-saving research.
Senate LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Tom Harkin (IA) and Ranking Member Arlen Specter (PA) have inserted language into the bill that seeks to change the president's cut-off date for which embryonic stem cells qualify for federal funding.
President Bush has allowed federal funding of embryonic stem cell research only on cells derived before August 9, 2001. Harkin and Specter want to move the date to June 15, 2007, making it possible for embryonic stem cells derived since August 2001 to be eligible for federal funds. At press time, the schedule for Senate floor consideration of the bill had not been finalized.
Following the passage of the bills in the House and Senate, leadership will convene to conference-the process of reaching a compromise in the differences between the House and Senate bills. Strong and persistent outreach by advocates now and through the conferencing process will be critical to assuring the strongest possible increase in federal support for NIH.
Originally published 7/2007
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