FY2008 BUDGET RESOLUTION (SENATE)

On March 23, 2007, the Senate approved its “Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for fiscal year (FY) 2008,” by a vote of 52-47. The Senate resolution provides an additional $18 billion for non-defense discretionary spending, which is on top of the President’s budget request for the fiscal year that begins October 1, 2007. Specifically, the Senate budget resolution provides $448 billion in non-defense discretionary spending for FY2008, which is $16 billion above the President’s FY2008 request for non-defense discretionary programs. The additional $2 billion is provided through an accounting maneuver in the form of “advance appropriations” from the following fiscal year.

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FY2008 BUDGET RESOLUTION (HOUSE)

On March 22, 2007, the House Budget Committee marked up its “Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for fiscal year (FY) 2008.” The resolution was approved on a 22-17 party line vote. While both the President’s budget request and the House proposal would balance the Nation’s budget by 2012, House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-SC) plan fully funds the President’s defense request and rejects President Bush’s spending cuts for health care and education by providing $22 billion more for non-defense discretionary spending than the President proposed in his FY2008 budget.

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ACTIVITIES INVOLVING FY2008 APPROPRIATIONS CYCLE

• FASEB Encourages House to Support Dear Colleague Letter to Increase NIH’s Budget
   

• FASEB Submits Public Witness Testimony for the Record
   

• House Appropriations Hearing on NIH
   

• House Committee on Science and Technology Hearings on NSF Reauthorization

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

Today, I am more optimistic about the funding environment for NIH than at any other time during my 2.5 years as FASEB’s Director of Legislative Relations. The momentum that was gained from Congress’ decision to identify NIH as a priority program in FY2007 and provide the agency with a $620 million increase in its current fiscal year is carrying over to the FY2008 appropriations process. Specifically, Senator Specter and Harkin’s amendment to the Senate budget resolution to provide an additional $2.2 billion for NIH, CDC and health professions training programs in FY2008 was accepted by unanimous consent, and as of today, 131 House Members are on record requesting that NIH receive a 6.7 percent increase ($1.9 billion) in order to begin the process of getting NIH “back on track” (and begin the process of recouping the losses caused by biomedical research inflation).

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UPCOMING HEARINGS

Senate Appropriations Subcommittee to Hold Hearings on Autism,

FY 2008 Budget, and the Frontiers of Science.

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CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

The House and Senate are on the Easter/Passover recess. The House will be in recess until April 13, and the Senate is scheduled to recess through April 9.

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