APPROPRIATIONS- FY2007 DECISIONS IMMINENT

Year-Long Continuing Resolution for FY2007 is being Finalized
The House plans to begin debating a year-long continuing resolution (CR) for FY2007
next week. In order to avoid amendments in the House and avert having to pass another short-term CR, House and Senate negotiators have decided to try to reach agreement on many of the issues and funding levels prior to bringing the CR to the House floor for a vote. Therefore, this means that House and Senate leaders will use this weekend to negotiate final funding decisions for those agencies whose FY2007 spending bills were not enacted. Republicans failed to pass ten of the twelve FY2007 appropriations bills, and instead passed a CR through February 15, 2007.

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NIH REAUTHORIZATION

President Signs Bill into Law and Implementation Process Begins
On January 15, 2007, President Bush signed the National Institutes of Health Reform Act of 2006. This is only the third omnibus reauthorization in the NIH’s history, and the first
in 14 years. The Act received bipartisan support from Congress. Many believe that the Act affirms the importance of the NIH and its vital role in advancing biomedical research
to improve the health of the Nation.

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

Unlike last year, the President’s State of the Union address (January 23, 2007) failed to highlight or even mention the issue that ranks as most important among FASEB society
members, specifically the commitment to provide support for the key Federal agencies that sponsor research. You may recall that the President proposed in last year’s State of the Union address to fund the American Competitiveness Initiative, a bold concept to double (over 10 years) our nation’s investment in the physical sciences and engineering basic science research programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

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CONGRESSIONAL MEETINGS

FASEB Meets With Ag Committee Staff to Discuss Farm Bill, NIFA
The Farm Bill is due for reauthorization in 2007 and previous reauthorization efforts have
included attempts by animal rights organizations to add provisions that could have
deleterious effects on the use of animal models in research. FASEB Director of
Communications, Carrie D. Wolinetz, Ph.D., Legislative Director Jon Retzlaff, together
with colleagues Alice Ra’anan of the American Physiological Society and Sangeeta
Panicker, Ph.D., of the American Psychological Society, met with Senate and House staff
on the Agriculture committees to discuss the upcoming Farm Bill.

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CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS

Senate Hearing on Embryonic Stem Cell Research
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and Labor-HHS
appropriations subcommittee held a joint hearing on January 19 on human embryonic
stem cell (hESC) research. HELP Committee Chairman Kennedy (D-MA), Ranking
Member Enzi (R-WY), Labor-HHS Subcommittee Chairman Harking (D-IA), Ranking
Member Specter (R-PA), Senators Hatch (R-UT), Brown (D-OH), Lautenberg (D-NJ),
Reed (D-RI), Isakson (R-GA), Coburn (R-OK), Sanders (I-VT), Allard (R-CO) and
Murkowski (R-AK) were present, and the nearly all stayed through the entire three hour
hearing. There were dramatic moments during the passionate statements offered by
lawmakers in favor or opposition to hESC research, such as Senator Hatch waving
around a pair of handcuffs to illustrate the restrictions felt by researchers and Senator
Enzi suggesting that hESC research would lead to unscrupulous experimentation on the
elderly.

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FASEB NEWS

FASEB’s Federal Funding Press Conference
On January 31, 2007, FASEB will hold its annual press conference to release our latest
report, Federal Funding for Biomedical & Related Life Sciences FY2008. FASEB’s
President, Leo Furcht, M.D., will be on hand to answer questions about the report, which
provides the argument for making federal research funding a priority, and to discuss
FASEB’s strategy for advocating on behalf of the scientific community for the upcoming
fiscal year. A major theme of this report and likely future funding recommendations from
FASEB will be aimed at sustainability of the scientific enterprise.

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CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

The House and Senate are in session. The next scheduled recess is the week of February 19.

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