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COALITION FOR HEALTH FUNDING
LETTER–IN
SUPPORT OF HOUSE L/HHS-EDUCATION BILL
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. As a result of that meeting,
the Coalition for Health Funding distributed a
letter to all health, education and labor groups
asking that they sign-on and signal their
support for the L/HHS-Education Bill.
Nine-hundred organizations supported the letter
(please see the “Inside the Beltway” section for
additional information). FASEB’s Science Policy
Committee declined to recommend that FASEB’s
Board should sign-on to the letter because of
concerns that it would be seen as endorsing a
1.9% increase for NIH when the Senate is
proposing to
increase NIH by 2.8%, as well as when the
biomedical inflation rate for research is 3.7%
in FY2008. However, FASEB’s Board plans to
discuss the
Coalition for Health Funding
letter on its July 3 call, where it will
weigh the importance of supporting Chairman Obey
versus expressing concern for the 1.9 percent
increase proposed by the House.
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.
Many of the groups who have opposed signing the
letter are concerned that it might indicate that
they are comfortable with the 1.9 percent
increase for NIH proposed by the House, which
would result in an additional 1.8 percent
decline in the agency’s purchasing power. And,
as you know, NIH’s purchasing power has declined
by more than ten percent since 2003. In
addition, many of the groups believe that their
membership would resist endorsing the 1.9%
increase when just a few months ago a majority
in the House and Senate signed Dear Colleague
letters to the Appropriations Committee Chairmen
asking that NIH receive a 6.7% increase in
FY2008 to begin the process of reversing the
decline in NIH’s purchasing power that has
occurred over the past four years.
However, a significant number of biomedical
research advocacy organizations have
signed on to the letter because they believe
that it’s important to provide support for
Chairman Obey’s efforts to get the bill through
the House with as many Republican
members as possible supporting it. The hope is
that such widespread support for the bill
would convince the President that the House
would override his threatened veto. The
concern is that without such widespread support,
a vet would result in a year-long
continuing resolution (CR) for NIH at the FY2007
funding levels. Therefore, since
supporting the House bill would not preclude
groups from supporting the higher level
that has been proposed for NIH in the Senate
bill once the two bills are conferenced,
many organizations believe it is more important
to assist Chairman Obey in his efforts to
move the appropriations process forward,
generate enough support from House members to
avoid a Presidential veto and help ensure that a
long-term CR does not occur.
However, in spite of this disagreement on what
specific strategy should be pursued with
regard to the Coalition for Health Funding
letter, the entire biomedical research advocacy
community remains united in its belief that NIH
increases are vital to improving the
functioning and quality of life for everyone.
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BILL ACTION
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination
Act
The Genetic Information
Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) passed the House by
a vote of
420-3 on April 25th. The Senate bill has been
reported out of committee. At this time, the
American Society of Human Genetics and other
groups in the coalition for genetic
fairness are asking that the Senate bring the
bill to a vote. FASEB has established a link to
send messages to your Senators in support of
GINA, found
here.
FASEB Takes Action on Class B Dealer
Prohibition
In an effort to prevent amendments to the Labor-HHS
appropriations bill which would
prohibit the use of NIH funding to procure
animals for research via USDA licensed Class
B dealers, FASEB sent
letters to Chairman David Obey (D-WI)
and other members of the
House Labor-HHS appropriations subcommittee. In
response to FASEB and other
groups’ concerns, staff for Ranking Member James
Walsh (R-NY) brokered a
compromise to add language to the accompanying
report which would encourage NIH to
commission an independent review of the use of
cats and dogs from Class B dealers in
biomedical research. Ultimately, however, the
language was not introduced. FASEB
quickly turned our attention to the Senate,
sending letters to every member of the Senate
Labor-HHS appropriations subcommittee, urging
them not to support language
prohibiting the use of Class B dealer animals.
In the end, our efforts proved successful, as
described above, with the compromise language
ending up in the Senate version of the bill.
FASEB will closely monitor progress of the
study, should it end up in the final bill
report, since NIH typically considers such
directives to carry the weight of law.
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CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE
The House and Senate are in recess from July
2-6.
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