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STATUS OF FY2008
APPROPRIATIONS BILLS:
Update as Congress Adjourns for August Recess
On Sunday, August 5, 2007, Congress adjourned
for its month-long August recess. When it
returns on September 4th, Congress will have to
face the fact that it has not
passed any of the twelve spending bills to fund
the government in the new fiscal year,
which begins October 1, 2007. While the House
actually succeeded in passing all twelve
of the appropriations bills, the Senate was only
able to complete one, the Homeland
Security Appropriations Act. And, of course,
these bills won’t even reach the President’s
desk until the House and Senate conference the
separate measures and pass them in their
respective chambers.
Congress spent much of June and July debating
and voting on the twelve appropriations bills
that would provide $22 billion more in Federal
domestic discretionary spending than
President Bush proposed in his FY2008 budget.
The President held a news conference
last week to reaffirm his intentions to veto the
spending bills if Congress does not
eliminate $22 billion from them and urged
Congressional leaders to send the measures to
him one at a time to avoid what he called a
massive omnibus bill that “no one can read” and
“in which anyone can hide wasteful spending.”
The White House believes there are urgent
priorities that must be addressed and which will
be put on hold if Congress fails to act by
October 1, 2007. He also said that his budget
provided for a 6.9% increase in spending
(though, the President didn’t take the time to
explain that practically the entire increase is
reserved for defense), which is “adequate to
meet the demands of the country.”
In spite of the President’s remarks, it’s widely
assumed that Congress will be grouping
many of the appropriations bills together into a
single package (an omnibus bill) to send
to the President. It’s also expected that this
will not occur until the late fall (at the
earliest), thereby necessitating a continuing
resolution, if not a series of them until final
agreement is reached on the appropriations
bills. Therefore, you should expect that most,
if not all of the six agencies FASEB tracks (NIH,
NSF, DOE’s Office of Science,
USDA’s National Research Initiative, VA’s
Medical and Prosthetics Program and (NASA) will
be on a continuing resolution once October 1,
2007, arrives. The bigger question is trying to
determine how long these agencies will be funded
through a continuing resolution.
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STATUS OF PRESIDENT’S THREAT TO
VETO FY2008 APPROPRIATIONS BILLS:
The
following information summarizes the status of
the five appropriations bills we follow and
gives you an idea of how much more Congress is
proposing to spend than the
President provided in his FY2008 budget
proposal:
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill (NIH):
The House spends $12 billion more
and the Senate spends $10 billion more than the
President proposed in his FY2008
budget.
Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations
Bill (NSF & NASA): The House spends
$2.3 billion more and the Senate $3.2 billion
more than the President proposed in his
FY2008 budget.
Agriculture Appropriations Bill (USDA):
The House and Senate both spend about $1
billion more than the President proposed in his
FY2008 budget.
Energy and Water Appropriations Bill (DOE’s
Office of Science): The House spends
$480 million more and the Senate spends $1.8
billion more than the President proposed
in his FY2008 budget.
** Military Construction, Veterans Affairs
and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill:
Note that while both the House and Senate
proposals would spend $4 billion more than
the President proposed in his FY2008 budget, the
President has agreed to the higher
funding levels to support veterans medical care.
Therefore, it’s expected that the
President will sign this bill into law (once the
House and Senate conference it) before
October 1, 2007.
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STATUS OF FY2008
FUNDING FOR SPECIFIC AGENCIES:
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
House: On July 19, 2007, the House
of Representatives passed H.R. 3043, the FY2008
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill by a
vote of 276-140. The bill provides NIH with a
$750 million increase (an increase of 2.6%) in
FY2008. However, the actual NIH program increase
is $549 million (a 1.9% increase) because the
House would require that NIH transfer $201
million of its increase to the Global AIDS fund.
Senate: On June 21, 2007, the
Senate Appropriations Committee approved S.
1710, the
FY2008 Labor, Health and Human Services,
Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS-Ed)
Appropriations Bill. The bill, which had been
approved by the Labor-HHS-Ed Appropriations
Subcommittee on June 19, 2007, provides $29.9
billion (a $1 billion increase or a 3.5 percent
increase over FY2007) for NIH. However the
Senate
subcommittee followed the same approach as the
House subcommittee to increase the
amount of the transfer from NIH to the Global
HIV/AIDS fund from $99 million in FY2007 to $300
million in for FY2008. As a result, the actual
increase for NIH programs in FY2008 is $799
million (2.8 percent), compared to $549 million
(1.9 percent) in the House bill. Both the House
and Senate bills fall short of the projected 3.7
percent increase in the Biomedical Research and
Development Price Index (BRDPI) for FY 2008.
Outlook: The Labor-HHS-Education
Appropriations Bill is expected to be the
toughest
of any of the bills to reach agreement on
because of the fact that the majority of the
additional $22 billion for domestic
discretionary programs was reserved for labor,
health
and education programs. In fact, President Bush
has already issued a formal veto threat
to the bill (once the House and Senate
conference it) because the House bill spends $12
billion more than the President proposed to
spend in his FY2008 budget. The Senate
Appropriations Committee proposes to provide $10
billion more than the President
proposed for Labor-HHS-Education programs. The
reason Congress added such a
significant amount for labor, health and
education programs is because the President’s
budget actually proposed to cut Labor-HHS-Ed
programs by $7.6 billion. House
Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI)
decided to reinstate the cuts proposed by
the President ($7.6 billion) and provided for an
overall 3% increase ($4.3 billion).
National Science Foundation (NSF)
House: On July 26, 2007, the House
of Representatives voted 281-142 to pass H.R.
3093, the FY2008 Commerce, Justice, Science and
Related Agencies Appropriations
Act. The $53.8 billion bill provides funding for
many agencies, including the National
Science Foundation and NASA. The bill provides
NSF with $6.51 billion, which
amounts to a $592 million increase over its
FY2007 budget and $80 million more than
the President proposed. House Commerce, Justice
and Science Appropriations Chairman
Alan Mollohan (D-WV) stated that, “this increase
would continue the goal of doubling
NSF’s funding in 10 years.”
Senate: On June 28, 2007, the
Senate Appropriations Committee passed S. 1710,
the
FY2008 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act. The bill
recommends that NSF receive a $636 million
increase in FY2008, to $6.55 billion (an
11% increase). The Senate’s proposal is $124
million over the President’s FY2008
request ($6.429 million).
Outlook: The Bush Administration
commended Congress’ implementation of the
American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) with
its strong support for the National
Science Foundation (NSF), but has threatened to
veto the bills because they would
exceed the President’s cap. In addition, the
Administration commented that it opposes
the $72 million above the request for NSF
education programs that lack proven
effectiveness and requests the elimination of
report language that seeks to allocate funds
away “from the NSF research programs that most
directly contribute to America's
economic competitiveness.”
Department of Energy’s Office of Science
House: On July 18, 2007, the House
of Representatives passed the FY2008 Energy and
Water Development Appropriations Bill (H.R.
2641) by a vote of 312-112. The bill
would provide the Department of Energy’s (DOE)
Office of Science with an FY2008
appropriation of $4.516 billion, an increase of
$717 million over it’s FY2007 funding
level ($3.799 billion) and $116 million more
than the President proposed for FY2008.
This significant increase would amount to a
nineteen percent increase over FY2007. The
President’s FY2008 request for DOE’s Office of
Science was $4.4 billion.
Senate: On June 28, 2007, the
Senate Appropriations Committee passed the
Energy and
Water Development Appropriations Bill (S. 1751)
and proposed to provide the
Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science
with an appropriation $4.497 billion
for FY2008, which would translate to a $698
million dollar increase over the FY2007
funding level (an 18% increase). The President’s
FY2008 request for DOE’s Office of
Science was $4.4 billion. One of the goals of
the American Competitiveness Initiative is
to double the budget of DOE’s Office of Science
over ten years. The eighteen percent
increase recommended by the committee is a
significant step toward reaching this goal.
USDA’s National Research Initiative (NRI)
House: On August 2, 2007, the
House of Representatives passed the FY2008
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug
Administration and Related Agencies
Appropriations Bill (H.R. 3161) by a vote of
237-18. The bill would provide the
National Research Initiative (NRI), which
supports peer-reviewed agricultural research,
with an appropriation of $190 million, the same
as its FY2007 funding level and $66
million less than the President proposed for
FY2008.
Senate: On July 19, 2007, the
Senate Appropriations Committee passed the
FY2008
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug
Administration and Related Agencies
Appropriations Bill (S. 1859). The bill would
provide the National Research Initiative
(NRI), which supports peer-reviewed agricultural
research, with an appropriation of $244
million, $54 million than its FY2007 funding
level and $12 million less than the
President proposed for FY2008.
Veterans Affairs Medical and Prosthetics
Division
House: On June 15, 2007, the House
of Representatives passed the FY2008 Military
Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related
Agencies Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2642) by
a vote of 402-2. The bill would provide the VA
Medical and Prosthetics Research
Program with an appropriation of $480 million
for FY2008. This is $66 million more
than its FY2007 funding level ($414 million) and
$69 million more than the President
proposed ($411 million).
Senate: On May 22, 2007, the
Senate Appropriations Committee passed the
FY2008
Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and
Related Agencies Appropriations bill
(S.1645) and proposed to provide the VA Medical
and Prosthetics Research Program
with an appropriation of $500 million. This is
$86 million more than its FY2007 funding
level ($414 million) and $89 million more than
the President proposed ($411 million).
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INSIDE (The Beltway) SCOOP–Jon
Retzlaff, Legislative Director
Many on Capitol Hill will tell you that the
month-long summer recess could not have
come soon enough. The partisan bickering during
the past few months has reached levels rarely
seen in an off-year election cycle. Republicans
are growing increasingly frustrated with
Democrats attempts to prevent an open debate on
many issues, while Democrats claim that they
have had to take these steps to limit debate
because Republicans are purposely delaying all
legislation from even being considered.
Frustration seemed to reach its peak at midnight
on Thursday, August 2, 2007, when one hundred
Republicans stormed out of the House shouting
“shame, shame” to protest a vote on the
Agriculture Appropriations Bill. Republicans
claimed that Democrats stole a roll-call vote on
a proposal to require that the appropriations
bill be sent back to committee with instructions
to deny federal benefits to illegal immigrants.
Democrats gaveled the vote shut at 214-214, and
declared that they had won, but the public tally
showed that Republicans had won 215-213 after a
member changed his vote. Then the electricity
for the voting board went out and when it was
restored the voting board showed Democrats had
won 216-212 because additional members decided
to change their vote. This event resulted in the
House voting unanimously to create a special
committee, with subpoena powers, to investigate
Republican allegations that Democratic leaders
had stolen a victory from the Republicans.
However, it also resulted in a few days of
Congressional rancor and caused the House to
delay it adjournment for the August break.
These kinds of events are not helpful to our
cause because it’s contributing to the poisoned
environment on Capitol Hill, hardening the
respective party’s positions and reducing the
chances that we will be able to identify
Republicans who would be willing to vote to
overturn President Bush’s vetoes on the
appropriations bills. However, let’s hope that
the break is positive for Congressional members
and their staff and that they will return in
September with an interest in making sure that
many of our country’s issues are properly
addressed, including our nation’s science
research infrastructure.
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