**The Washington Update Will Be On Recess Until September 15th**

SENATE FY2007 L/HHS APPROPRIATIONS

Committee Report Language:
The FY2007 Senate L/HHS Appropriations Subcommittee bill and report [S. 3708, S. Rpt. 109-287] includes the following key directives that will impact NIH: National Children's Study Bill Language, Budget Justification Materials, and Public Access Bill Language.

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HOUSE FY2007 L/HHS APPROPRIATIONS

Status of L/HHS Appropriations Bill (NIH):
The House L/HHS Appropriations bill remains the lone spending bill not to have reached the House floor. You may remember that the L/HHS bill was being held up due to the minimum wage amendment that had been attached during Committee mark-up. The situation changed somewhat when (just prior to recessing for the traditional five-week summer recess) House Republican leaders pushed through a separate legislative package that included the minimum wage increase. 

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NSF AND DOE'S OFFICE OF SCIENCE APPROPRIATIONS OUTLOOK

It’s expected that the defense appropriations bill will be the only annual spending bill to reach the President’s desk before the end of the fiscal year on September 30. This means that the balance of the eleven (in the House) and twelve (in the Senate) appropriations bills will be postponed until the lame duck session in November and December. However, it appears that once Congress does take up the appropriations bills, the budgets for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science will fare quite well.

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INSIDE (The Beltway) SCOOP
- Jon Retzlaff, Legislative Director

During the August Congressional recess, one of our goals (within FASEB’s Office of Public Affairs) is to help FASEB society member scientists, clinicians and scholars become more involved in advocating for biomedical research on a much more targeted and local level. We hope to establish and implement an initiative to encourage NIH-funded FASEB society members to identify opportunities to educate their Congressional representatives, local leaders and the general public regarding the importance of increased funding for NIH and other scientific agencies.  

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NIH REAUTHORIZATION

On Friday, July 28, 2006, the House recessed for its annual August break without introducing an NIH Reauthorization bill. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) had indicated that he would either introduce a bill or provide the broader research community with a discussion draft prior to leaving town. However, since this did not happen, it’s now not clear whether we will see an updated draft or bill before Congress returns in September.

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BILLS, BILLS, BILLS

S.3778, A Senate Bill to Reauthorize the Small Business Innovation Research Program
On August 2, 2006, Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, introduced S.3778, “to reauthorize and improve the Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958”. There are currently no co-sponsors, nor is there a companion bill in the House. The bill has been added to the Senate legislative calendar. Of the 182 pages of bill text, 14 pages are explicitly directed to the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs.

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FASEB MEETINGS

FASEB Meets with OMB Officials regarding FY2008 Budget
On Thursday, July 25, representatives from the Executive Committee of the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research Funding met with the NIH examiners from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the current budget situation at NIH and look forward to what we can expect in FY2008. The OMB officials, Mr. Marc Garufi and Ms. Crystal Roach, explained that the President’s budget in FY2008 is going to be extremely tight for non-defense, non-homeland security discretionary spending.

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CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

The House and Senate will be in recess until September 5, 2006.