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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.
When asked if he would allow a minimum-wage
increase to come to the floor, House Majority
Leader John Boehner (R-OH) responded, “Probably
not.” Therefore, action on the L/HHS spending
bill remains uncertain until this issue is
resolved.
SENATE FY2007
L/HHS APPROPRIATIONS
Status of L/HHS Appropriations Bill (NIH)
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.
You may remember that during the Senate debate
on its budget resolution, Senators Specter and
Harkin were successful in convincing seventy-one
other Senators to support their amendment to add
$7.1 billion for important health and education
programs. Unfortunately, when the House and
Senate were unable to agree on a joint budget
resolution, their amendment essentially became
moot. However, Senate Appropriations Chairman
Thad Cochran (R-MS) showed that he clearly
understood that the L/HHS spending bill required
additional funds when he allocated $5 billion
more to the L/HHS subcommittee than the
President proposed.
INSIDE (THE BELTWAY) SCOOP- Jon Retzlaff
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.
Of course, the FY2007 L/HHS appropriations bills
will have the most immediate impact
on the agency. If the House resolves the
minimum-wage issue and brings the L/HHS
appropriations bill to the floor for a vote,
it’s still not clear whether the measure would
pass. Moderate Republicans continue to express
strong reservations about voting for a
bill that does not adequately fund important
health and education programs. In fact, even
some conservative Republicans have indicated
that they are concerned about the
consequences of flat funding NIH in FY2007 (as
is currently proposed). However, our
concern is that these same Members who support
additional funding for NIH may decide
to support the bill because it includes projects
(earmarks) specifically designated for their
districts.
Therefore, FASEB will continue to work with the
broader patient and research
community to explain to Congressional Members
and staff that flat funding NIH imperils
the development of lifesaving scientific
breakthroughs, jeopardizes the scientific
pipeline
of young investigators and causes ripple effects
on other industries.
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