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FY2008 BUDGET RESOLUTION
PROVIDES $21 B EXTRA FOR DOMESTIC PROGRAMS
On Monday, May 16, 2007, House and Senate
Conferees agreed on a proposal to provide an
additional $21 billion for non-defense domestic
discretionary programs in the FY2008 Budget
Resolution. The $21 billion is significant and a
victory for the programs that are funded out of
the discretionary pie, including NIH, NSF, DOE,
VA, USDA, and NASA.
The House passed the measure on May 17 by a
214-209 vote without a single Republican voting
for it. The Senate quickly followed on a 52-40
vote; moderate Republicans Olympia Snowe and
Susan Collins, both of Maine, joined with the
Democrats.
As the House and Senate were voting to add the
additional money for domestic programs, the
White House threatened to veto any domestic
appropriations bill that exceeds President
Bush’s spending requests for the fiscal year
that begins October 1, 2007. President Bush has
proposed a cap of $933 billion for all FY2008
discretionary appropriations, including defense.
Therefore, Congress has voted to raise the cap
to $954 billion for domestic discretionary
programs. It should be noted that more than half
of the funds in the domestic discretionary pool
are for defense programs, which is one of the
reasons why the additional $21 billion has been
directed towards domestic programs other than
defense.
If the White House veto threats are strictly
applied, almost none of the FY2008
domestic-spending bills will be signed into law.
However, it’s also become evident that
sustaining a veto on some of these bills,
including the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations
bill, will be no easy task given that it
includes numerous popular programs, ranging from
NIH to college grants. Many Congressional
Democrats and Republicans have remarked that
these programs, such as research at the NIH,
have been squeezed in the past few years, and
that there is pent-up demand for spending on the
NIH, Pell Grants, low-income energy subsidies,
CDC, and other programs. In fact, House
Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey
(D-WI) was quoted when pointing out the
differences between the final FY2008 Budget
Resolution and the request from President Bush,
“I haven’t had too many people grab me back home
and say, ‘Obey, why don’t you come to your
senses and cut cancer research?’ That’s what the
President’s budget has done for the past two
years, and that’s what it would do again.”
You may remember that on May 9, 2007, FASEB’s
Office of Public Affairs sent out an alert to
society members urging their respective House
and Senate Members to support providing an
additional $22 billion for discretionary
spending, and requesting that they encourage
Appropriations Committee Chairmen Obey and
Robert Byrd (D-WV) to provide a $14 billion
increase to the Labor-HHS-Education
appropriations subcommittee in FY2008.
During the past two weeks, FASEB society members
sent more than 12,000 letters to the Hill. Your
voices were clearly heard as the first part of
our request was nearly met ($21 billion provided
vs. the $22 billion requested). And, we should
learn the results from the second part of our
request (whether $14 billion will be provided to
the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations
Subcommittee) within the next few days.
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FY2008 APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS
Passing the budget allows Democrats to start
moving forward with the FY2008 appropriations
bills. In fact, this week, four of the House
Appropriations subcommittees, including the
Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee and
the Military Construction, Veteran’s Affairs,
and Related Agencies approved their bills even
though House Appropriations Chairman David Obey
(D-WI) has not publicly announced specific
allocations for the twelve subcommittees. The
remainder of the subcommittee bills will not be
marked up until Congress returns from its
Memorial Day recess.
House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy
and Water
On May 23, 2007, the House Appropriations
Subcommittee on Energy and Water marked up its
FY2008 bill and proposed that the Department of
Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science receive an
appropriation of $4.4 billion, which translates
to a 15 percent increase over FY2007, and
matches FASEB’s recommendation for the Office in
FY2008. The President’s FY2008 request for DOE’s
Office of Science was also $4.4 billion. One of
the goals of the American Competitiveness
Initiative is to double the budget of DOE’s
Office of Science over ten years. The 15 percent
increase recommended by the subcommittee is a
down payment toward reaching this goal. The full
committee will not meet until after the Memorial
Day recess to consider the bill.
House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military
Construction, Veteran’s Affairs, and Related
Agencies
On May 22, 2007, the House Appropriations
Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veteran’s
Affairs, and Related Agencies marked up its
FY2008 bill and proposed that the VA Medical and
Prosthetics Research Program receive an
appropriation of $480 million, which is exactly
what FASEB recommended in its Federal Funding
Report for the VA program in FY2008. The full
committee will not meet until after the Memorial
Day recess to consider the bill.
In addition, on May 24, 2007, Congress approved
the Emergency Wartime Supplemental bill and sent
it to the President for his signature. The
Supplemental bill includes an additional $32.5
million for the VA medical and prosthetic
research program (for use during this current
fiscal year, FY2007). FASEB sent a
letter in April to the Supplemental
conferees asking them to support the $32.5
million increase.
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ACTIVITIES INVOLVING FY08
APPROPRIATIONS
House Congressional Biomedical Research
Caucus Co-Chairs Submit Dear Colleague Letter to
Increase NIH’s Budget
On May 16, 2007, Congressman Brian Bilbray
(R-CA) spearheaded an effort to highlight the
need for more NIH funding. The Co-Chairs of the
House Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus,
including Representatives Bilbray, Lois Capps
(D-CA), Mike Castle (R-DE) and Rush Holt (D-NJ),
sent the following
letter in support of NIH funding, as
well as called attention to the May 4, 2007
Washington Times editorial on the dangers of
NIH funding cuts. FASEB sent
thank you letters to the four Co-Chairs.
In addition, FASEB would like to thank Gary
Kline, Representative Bilbray’s Health
Legislative Assistant, for his efforts and
commitment to this initiative. Mr. Kline has
been extremely helpful to the scientific
community on numerous issues. Prior to taking
the position in Representative Bilbray’s office,
Mr. Kline served on FASEB’s Public Affairs
staff.
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WASHINGTON UPDATE |
