HOUSE FY2007 L/HHS APPROPRIATIONS

Status of L/HHS Appropriations Bill (NIH)
Prior to leaving for the July 4th recess, the House passed ten of its eleven spending bills.
The lone exception was the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (L/HHS)
Appropriations Bill, which you may remember was yanked from the floor schedule once
Democrats successfully attached their amendment to increase the minimum-wage to
$7.25 per hour.

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SENATE FY2007 L/HHS APPROPRIATIONS

The Senate L/HHS Appropriations Subcommittee is scheduled to mark-up its bill on Tuesday, July 18th, with full Committee action scheduled for two days later (July 20th). While the subcommittee will have $5 billion more to work with than the President proposed, it remains $2 billion less than what Senate L/HHS Appropriations Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Ranking Member Tom Harkin (D-IA) had hoped for.      

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

Biomedical research advocates are bracing for what promises to be an eventful three weeks once Congress returns on July 10th (and before it adjourns for the August summer recess period). Congress is expected to act on numerous pieces of legislation that will directly affect NIH, including proposals to allow funding for embryonic stem cell research, a measure to assess, review and revise NIH’s authorities and bills to determine NIH’s FY2007 appropriation.  

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NIH REAUTHORIZATION

On Tuesday, June 27, Leo Furcht, M.D., FASEB’s President and Jon Retzlaff, FASEB’s
Director of Legislative Relations, met with Joe Barton (R-TX), House Energy and
Commerce Committee Chairman, Bud Albright, Staff Director for the Committee and
Cheryl Jaeger and Katherine Martin, professional staff overseeing NIH Reauthorization
for the Committee, to discuss the Chairman’s plans to introduce and mark-up an NIH
Reauthorization bill. While Ms. Jaeger is currently Majority Whip Roy Blunt’s (R-MO)
Health Policy Advisor, she continues to work on NIH Reauthorization.    

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HOUSE FY2007 SSJC APPROPRIATIONS

On June 29, 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the FY 2007 Science,
State, Justice and Commerce appropriations bill. This legislation included funding for the
National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA).

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HOUSE AND SENATE FY2007 ENERGY/WATER APPROPRIATIONS

Includes: Status of House and Senate Appropriations bills.

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STEM CELL LEGISLATION

The week before the July 4th recess, FASEB sent letters to the Republican leadership of
the Senate, including Senate Majority Leader Frist (R-TN), Senators Mitch McConnell
(R-KY), Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX), and Rick Santorum (R-PA), adjuring them to
bring the Embryonic Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (H.R. 810), which passed the
House of Representative more than one year ago, to a vote by the full Senate. In addition, FASEB sent an alert to member society scientists in Republican Senators’ districts, generating nearly 450 letters putting pressure on Senator Frist to bring the bill forward.

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CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

The House and Senate return from the Independence Day District work period on July
10th.

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