FY2008 APPROPRIATIONS BILLS

NIH: Senate Labor-HHS-Education (L/HHS) Appropriations Committee
recommends $1 billion increase for NIH in FY2008

On June 21, 2007, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY2008 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS-Ed) Appropriations Bill. The bill, which had been approved by the Labor-HHS-Ed Appropriations Subcommittee on June 19, 2007, provides $29.9 billion (a $1 billion increase or a 3.5 percent increase over FY2007) for NIH.

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DOE'S OFFICE OF SCIENCE FY2008 FUNDING LEVELS

Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science: House Appropriations Committee
passes Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill
On June 20, the House Appropriations Committee ratified the action taken by the
Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development on May 23, 2007, when it marked up
its FY2008 bill and proposed that the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science
receive an appropriation of $4.516 billion, an increase of $717 million over it’s FY2007
funding level ($3.799 million) and $116 million more than the President proposed for
FY2008. This significant increase would amount to a nineteen percent increase over
FY2007. The increase will allow DOE’s Office of Science to support 3,500 additional
researchers and allow almost all of the science facilities to operate at maximum capacity.
The President’s FY2008 request for DOE’s Office of Science was $4.4 billion.

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NSF FY2008 PROPOSED FUNDING LEVELS

National Science Foundation: Senate Appropriations Committee recommends a $636 million increase for NSF in FY2008
On June 28, 2007, the Senate Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Committee recommended that NSF receive a $636 million increase in FY2008, to $6.553 billion (an 11% increase). The Senate’s proposal is $124 million over the President’s FY2008 request ($6.429 million). The momentum for the proposed increase comes from the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI), a bi-partisan initiative to ensure that the U.S. remains the leader in science and technology. The goal of the ACI is to double the budgets of NSF and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science over ten years. Floor debate in the Senate is expected sometime in July.

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COALITION FOR HEALTH FUNDING LETTER

The Coalition for Health Funding, a nonprofit alliance of fifty national organizations that works to ensure that health discretionary spending is regarded as a budget priority, organized a planning strategy with labor, education, and health groups to support passage of the FY2008 House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill with enough support from Republicans to override a threatened Presidential veto.

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

During the past two weeks, the biomedical research advocacy community has been faced with one of the most divisive issues I’ve encountered since coming to FASEB three years ago. The letter distributed by the Coalition for Health Funding that asked for organizations to sign-on has split many in the biomedical research community and even FASEB member societies.

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BILL ACTION

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act

FASEB Takes Action on Class B Dealer Prohibition

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CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

The House and Senate are in recess from July 2-6.

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