FY2008 APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS COMPLETED

Congress closed the first session of the 110th Congress by voting this week to approve the Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY2008 – a bill that combines eleven of the twelve appropriations bills and provides funding for the scientific agencies FASEB supports. The President has indicated that he plans to sign the bill, but a fourth Continuing Resolution (CR) was passed to extend funding for the programs included in the Omnibus bill until December 31, 2007. This allows Mr. Bush’s budget staff time to review the 3,500 page document. However, it’s inconceivable the President would decide not to sign the bill when the Democrats met his top-line limit for discretionary domestic spending and provided a large down payment for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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FINAL FY2008 FUNDING LEVELS FOR SELECTED SCIENCE AGENCIES AND PROGRAMS FASEB SUPPORTS

NIH’s FY2008 budget (Programmatic level)

NSF’s FY2008 budget

DOE’s Office of Science FY2008 budget

VA Medical and Prosthetics Research

U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Research Initiative (NRI)

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TIMELINE OF ACTIONS RE: THE CONSOLIDATED APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR FY2008 

A review of the actions that occurred leading up to the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY2008 (beginning with the recent actions).

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NIH Institute and Center FY2008 Funding Levels

A chart showing how each of the NIH Institutes and Centers would be affected by the Consolidated  Appropriations Act for 2008.

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Public Access Language Included in the FY2008 Omnibus Bill
 

Public Access language remained in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008:
SEC. 218. The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.
 

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

While we are extremely disappointed in the final FY2008 funding levels for the scientific agencies FASEB supports (outside of VA and to a lesser degree, DOE research), the extent of our frustration becomes even more pronounced when we review the numerous positive events that occurred throughout the year, many of which signaled a much different outcome than which occurred. In fact, the broader scientific community began the FY2008 appropriations process not only with high hopes, but also lots of momentum to back-up the optimism.

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CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

The House has adjourned, closing its first session of the 110th Congress. The Senate reconvenes Friday for a pro forma session.

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