STATUS OF FY08 BUDGET RESOLUTION & APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS

This week, the Senate and House appointed conferees to begin final deliberations on the FY2008 budget resolution, although floor action is not expected until next week. The budget blueprint is important to the research community for one overriding reason. It sets an overall discretionary spending cap for the Appropriations Committee.

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FASEB'S ALERT: FY2008 BUDGET RESOLUTION

On May 9, 2007, FASEB’s Office of Public Affairs sent out an alert to society members explaining how the next two weeks would determine the level of appropriations that can be attained in FY2008 for the research agencies we support (NIH, NSF, DOE, VA, USDA and NASA), and urging their respective House and Senate Members to support the Congressional budget proposal to provide an additional $22 billion for discretionary spending, and request that they encourage Appropriations Committee Chairmen Obey and Byrd to provide a $14 billion increase to the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations subcommittee in FY2008.

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SENATE 'DEAR COLLEAGUE' LETTER ON NIH FUNDING

FASEB Encourages Senate to Support Dear Colleague Letter to Increase NIH’s Budget – 48 Members Sign-on!

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

If the House and Senate agree on an FY2008 budget resolution next week, it will pave the way for the first appropriations process under Democratic control of both chambers in 12 years. This change in leadership in Congress has provided the research community with an opportunity to change the dimensions of the debate for increasing NIH’s budget.

For the past three years, President Bush submitted budget proposals flatlined NIH funding, and the Republican Congress, in essence, rubber stamped the President’s recommendations. However, this year, Democrats have rejected the President’s plan to freeze overall non-defense discretionary spending and are prepared to increase the pot for domestic programs by as much as $22 billion over the President’s request. The fact that top Senate and House negotiators are discussing providing an additional $22 billion for domestic programs underscores Congress’ determination to provide significant increases for valuable Federal programs, such as for NIH and other science programs.

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CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS

Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education (L/HHS) – Burden of Chronic Diseases
On April 20, 2007, the Senate L/HHS Appropriations Subcommittee [Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman] held an NIH budget hearing on the burden of chronic diseases. The following NIH Directors testified: Drs. Richard Hodes, Director, NIA; Stephen Katz, Director, NIAMS; Elizabeth Nabel, Director, NHLBI; and Griffin Rodgers, Director, NIDDK.

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FLOOR ACTION

House Passes NSF Reauthorization (H.R. 1867)
On May 2, 2007, the House of Representatives passed the National Science Foundation Authorization Act of 2007 (H.R. 1867) by a vote of 399-17. H.R. 1867 authorizes appropriations for the NSF for fiscal years 2008, 2009 and 2010. This legislation:

• Keeps NSF on a 10-year doubling path

• Establishes a pilot program of one-year seed grants for new investigators to help improve funding rates for young investigators and stimulate higher-risk research

• Directs NSF to foster relationships (criterion 2 of the merit review process) between academia and industry in order to promote U.S. competitiveness

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FASEB MEETINGS

FASEB Attends Meeting with Representative Kennedy
On May 3, 2007, Jon Retzlaff, FASEB’s Director of Legislative Relations, and colleagues from the Campaign for Medical Research, met with Patrick Kennedy (D-MA) to discuss how to help him advocate for increased funding for NIH. Representative Kennedy is a member of the L/HHS appropriations subcommittee, the subcommittee with jurisdiction over NIH funding. Representative Kennedy encouraged us to bring succinct examples of research activities that won’t be funded without a significant increase for NIH in FY2008. He is supportive of increasing NIH’s budget, but remarked that a lot will depend on the budget resolution and the allocation the subcommittee receives.

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AAAS FORUM ON S&T POLICY

Dr. Marburger was making his sixth consecutive appearance at this annual policy forum. He discussed how there exists wide consensus on the importance of federally funded science to our nation’s long term economic competitiveness and specifically cited the recommendations in the National Academies’ 2005 report, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” to increase funding for basic research in the physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering– areas that had stagnated while the budget for biomedical research soared. He reminded the audience that the Administration’s response to this consensus was the American Competitiveness Initiative, which among other things, proposed doubling the budgets for NSF, NIST, and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science over ten years.

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UPCOMING HEARINGS

House Science and Technology Subcommittee to Hold Hearing on Federal Science/Math Education Programs

Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Theme Hearings on FY08 Budget

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CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

The House and Senate are in session.

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