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PRESIDENT'S BUDGET REQUEST:
MEETINGS WITH HHS and NIH LEADERS
HHS Secretary Holds Press Conference to
Discuss President’s FY2008 Budget
During HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt’s news
conference to discuss the President’s FY2008
budget, he stated that difficult decisions were
required in light of the President’s plan to
balance the budget by 2012. However, he also
noted that the President’s budget provides
funding for high demand and high priority
programs, and said the budget “advances medical
research.” In response to a reporter’s question
about how he would justify to scientists the
small increase for NIH, (especially after taking
into account the $300 million transfer to the
Global AIDS Program), Secretary Leavitt said the
following four things:
1) The $28 billion budget for medical research
illustrates just how devoted our country is to
NIH;
2) NIH will continue to invest in innovation;
3) The budget invests in new investigators; and
4) Investing across NIH is extremely important.
He specifically mentioned that NIH Roadmap
initiatives involving multiple disciplines will
continue to be strongly supported.
NIH Director Zerhouni Discusses
President’s FY2008 Budget
On February 5, 2007, Elias A. Zerhouni,
Director, NIH, met with biomedical research
advocates to discuss how the President’s FY2008
budget would impact NIH. As pointed out in the
FY2008 budget section of this report, the
President’s FY2008 budget proposal includes an
increase of $232 million for NIH, to $28.621
billion (the President’s Labor-Health-Education
appropriations request for NIH). However, the
actual increase is $32 million because the
President is proposing to increase the amount of
dollars that NIH must transfer to the Global
AIDS Fund by $200 million over FY2007.
During the NIH budget briefing, Dr. Zerhouni
pointed out that many of the priorities outlined
in the FY2007 Joint Funding resolution are
consistent with what the President has proposed
for NIH in FY2008, including the emphasis on
increasing new and competing grants, a plan to
encourage new investigators to remain in the
field, and support for interdisciplinary
research.
Dr. Zerhouni also spoke strongly in favor of the
investigator-initiated grant mechanism, and
expressed concern about the individual
investigator who is being forced to close his or
her lab or having to lay-off scientists. Dr.
Zerhouni also outlined his three priorities for
FY2008: providing additional opportunities for
the individual investigator; providing
additional opportunities for new investigators;
and encouraging proactive and interdisciplinary
research.
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INSIDE (The Beltway) SCOOP
- Jon Retzlaff, Legislative Director
In many respects, President Bush’s budget has
been overtaken by the House’s passage last week
of a Joint Funding resolution to complete work
on the FY2007 appropriations bills. This is
because the President’s FY2008 budget was
prepared prior to the release of the Joint
Funding resolution proposal, and many of the
small spending increases cited in the
President’s FY2008 budget turn out to be
reductions from those levels when compared to
the revisions Democrats have proposed in the
FY2007 Joint Funding resolution. For example,
the small increase ($232 million) provided to
NIH in the President’s FY2008 budget would
actually be a significant cut ($511 million) if
it is compared to what is provided for in the
Joint Funding Resolution. Even though the Bush
Administration does not plan to issue any
technical reassessments to reflect the higher
funding levels for NIH and other programs, it
has been placed on notice that Congress regards
medical research as a priority.
The challenge for Democratic leaders in
Congress, as well as for the broader scientific
community, is to find the additional dollars
necessary in FY2008 to put NIH and other
scientific agencies on a sustained path of
funding. Democrats understand that the only way
they can find revenue to ensure significant
increases for priority programs, such as NIH, is
to cut back on military spending, delay their
stated intentions to balance the budget, or
rescind the Administration’s tax cuts in future
years. They are not especially eager to do any
of these.
Therefore, the entire biomedical research
community must try to build on its most recent
successes by continuing to remain engaged in the
issues, and encourage their Members of Congress
to support science at every opportunity. The
following recent editorial in Nature
(February 7, 2007) issued a concluding message
that we all should heed:
“It would be unfortunate if this slightly
better funding picture convinced researchers to
drop their new-found level of political
engagement. Scientists have plenty to do in
their daily lives and may struggle to find time
to write a letter to the newspaper, speak to a
classroom at school, or even visit their
Congressman. But in the end, such activities can
pay dividends.”
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CONGRESSIONAL MEETINGS
FASEB Meets with Representative McCollum’s
Staff to Discuss NIH Appropriations
Leo T. Furcht, FASEB’s President, and Jon
Retzlaff, FASEB’s Director of Legislative
Relations, met with Representative Betty
McCollum’s (D-MN) Legislative Director, Emily
Lawrence, and Health Legislative Assistant Nina
Schwartz, to introduce them to FASEB, discuss
the importance of biomedical research funding at
the National Institutes of Health, and highlight
some of the exciting research occurring on the
University of Minnesota campus. Representative
McCollum was recently selected to serve on the
Labor-HHS-Education appropriations subcommittee.
The staff informed us that Congresswoman
McCollum strongly supports NIH, and understands
how vital its funding is to the University of
Minnesota and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
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UPCOMING CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS
March 1
House Appropriations Subcommittee to Hold
Theme Hearing The House Appropriations
Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education
(Representative Dave Obey [D-WI], Chairman) will
hold a theme hearing on “Substance Abuse and
Mental Health” and has asked that NIAAA, NIDA,
and NIMH appear together with other agencies
funded by the Subcommittee, to present their
FY2008 budgets. Drs. T. K. Li, Director, NIAAA,
Nora Volkow, Director, NIDA, and Thomas Insel,
Director, NIMH, will testify. Also testifying
will be Dr. Terry Cline, Administrator of SAMHSA.
March 2
House Appropriations Subcommittee to Hold
Hearing on NIEHS
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
(Representative Norman Dicks [D-WA], Chairman)
will hold a hearing on the Superfund programs
for NIEHS appropriated through this
subcommittee. Dr. David Schwartz, Director,
NIEHS, will testify.
March 6
House Appropriations Subcommittee to Hold
Hearings on FY 2008 Budget
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor,
HHS, and Education (Representative Dave Obey
[D-WI], Chairman) will hold its NIH Overview
hearing on the FY2008 Budget, with Dr. Elias
Zerhouni, Director, NIH, testifying. He will be
accompanied by Drs. Elizabeth G. Nabel,
Director, NHLBI; John E. Niederhuber, Director,
NCI; Anthony S. Fauci, Director, NIAID; Duane F.
Alexander, Director, NICHD; and John Ruffin,
Director, NCMHD.
March 9
House Appropriations Subcommittee to Hold
Hearing on Emergency Preparedness
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor,
HHS, and Education (Representative Dave Obey
[D-WI], Chairman) will hold a hearing on HHS
emergency preparedness activities. Dr. Anthony
S. Fauci, Director, NIAID; Dr. Julie Gerberding,
Director, CDC; and ASPR, will testify.
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FASEB NEWS
FASEB Releases Annual Federal Funding
Recommendations for FY2008
With the resolution of the appropriations
process for FY 2007, which funded the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science
Foundation (NSF), and Department of Energy’s
(DOE) Office of Science, at significantly higher
levels than the previous fiscal year, FASEB was
able to release our annual report to Congress,
Federal Funding for Biomedical & Related Life
Sciences Research, FY 2008, in a far more
positive atmosphere than anticipated. “I was
prepared to come here today to talk about the
difficulty in looking ahead to FY2008 when
FY2007 remains unresolved,” said FASEB President
Leo Furcht, M.D., talking to a group of
reporters during a press conference releasing
the report. “Instead, I am here today with you
celebrating the good news that our voices were
finally heard.”
The FASEB report is developed each year by
committees of scientists representing the 21
member societies, often in consultation with
experts from the relevant federal agencies or
other advocacy groups. “A major theme of this
report and FASEB’s advocacy efforts over the
upcoming year will be sustainability of the
scientific enterprise,” according to Furcht.
“Only through predictable federal funding
streams will we be able to maintain steady
research progress to continue to improve the
health of our nation and quality of our lives.”
Coverage of the FASEB report appeared in a wide
spectrum of print and online publications,
including Science, Nature, The
Chronicle of Higher Education, and The
Scientist. The annual report will be
distributed to federal lawmakers,
health-research officials in the administration,
and the research community. It will serve as the
basis for FASEB’s research funding advocacy
efforts for the next fiscal year. The FASEB
report may be read in its entirety at
http://opa.faseb.org, and a summary of
the recommendations for FY2008 follows:
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
FASEB recommends that the National Institutes of
Health receive $30.8 billion in FY2008, an
increase of 6.7% over the level of the previous
fiscal year. This level of appropriations would
set the NIH on a 3-year track to recoup the
losses caused by biomedical research inflation.
National Science Foundation (NSF)
FASEB recommends an appropriation of $6.5
billion for the National Science Foundation in
FY2008.
Department of Energy (DOE)
FASEB recommends an appropriation of $4.3666
billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of
Science in FY2008.
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
FASEB recommends an appropriation of $480
million for the VA Medical and Prosthetics
Research Program and an increase in research
infrastructure support to $45 million in FY2008.
United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA)
FASEB recommends an appropriation of $248
million for the USDA National Research
Initiative and $1.377 billion for the
Agriculture Research Service in FY2008.
National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA)
FASEB requests that Congress provide NASA with
an increase of at least $39.5 million for
biological sciences research in FY2008 to
partially restore the deep cuts made in the life
sciences budget in the two previous fiscal
years. Subsequent increases in funding should be
contingent upon the implementation of the
organizational changes outlined in this report.
FASEB Partners with Research Community on
FY2008 Recommendation
FASEB joined with the Ad Hoc Group for Medical
Research, the Campaign for Medical Research (CMR),
the National Health Council (NHC), and
Research!America to call for a 6.7 percent
increase in funding for the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) in each of the next three years.
Howard Garrison, FASEB’s Director of Public
Affairs, and Sue Nelson, Vice President of
Advocacy, American Heart Association,
facilitated the groups’ efforts to determine the
specific funding increases that would be
required to place NIH on a 3-year track to
recoup the losses caused by biomedical research
inflation (since 2003). Therefore, it was
determined that 6.7 percent increases for the
next three years would put NIH
“Back-on-Track.”
FASEB, the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research,
the Campaign for Medical Research, the National
Health Council, and Research!America include
more than 500 patient groups, scientific and
professional societies, research and academic
institutions, and industry that represent more
than 125 million Americans.
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CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE
The House and Senate are in session. The next
scheduled recess is February 19-23 for the
President's Day district work period.
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