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APPROPRIATIONS -
STATUS & OUTLOOK FOR FY2007 SPENDING BILLS (NIH,
NSF & DOE)
FY2007 Outlook
With the elections behind them, Congress
reassembled the week of November 12th for a
lame-duck session that was to have been mostly
devoted to completing work on the ten remaining
FY2007 spending bills, including the measures
that fund the National Institutes of Health, the
National Science Foundation and the Department
of Energy’s Office of Science. However, Congress
ended up being so consumed with their internal
leadership races that final decisions on the
FY2007 Appropriations bills will be postponed
until after Thanksgiving.
As a result, Congress passed a continuing
resolution (CR) that provides funding through
December 8th for agencies whose FY2007 spending
bills have not yet been enacted. For agencies
for which neither the House nor Senate passed a
bill by October 1, 2006, such as NIH, the
funding rate is at the FY2006 current rate.
Given the limited amount of time left in the
year, it is unlikely that Congress will be able
to pass every bill separately. Therefore, the
odds are increasing that Congress will have to
resort to an Omnibus bill, where numerous bills
are cobbled together and voted on as a single
package, or pass a long-term CR lasting into
early 2007.
NIH
The specific bill that provides funding for NIH
(the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill)
was the lone spending bill that did not reach
the House floor for a vote. The Senate also has
not scheduled a vote on its version of the
Labor-HHS-Education spending bill. Therefore,
with only a few weeks remaining in the lame-duck
session, it is beginning to look like NIH will
have to operate under a long-term CR, most
likely until February, 2007. The inadequate
funding levels for important health and
education programs, including NIH, is making it
increasingly likely that Congress will decide to
put off consideration of the bill until next
year. However, because we believe that there is
a small window of opportunity to convince
legislators to complete action on the Labor-HHS-Education
bill before adjourning for the year, FASEB plans
to make one last push to persuade Congress to
provide an additional $2 billion for important
health and education programs. Such action would
prevent NIH from continuing to lose purchasing
power.
FASEB’s Action Plan
The day Congress returns from its Thanksgiving
recess (December 4, 2006), FASEB’s Office of
Public Affairs plans to facilitate an effort to
contact and encourage its 80,000 Society member
colleagues to implore their respective Senators
and House member to restore funding for labor,
health, and education programs to the FY2005
funding level. This will require that Congress
provide an additional $2 billion to the Senate
Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations
Subcommittee’s allocation. FASEB society members
can expect to receive a sample letter to send to
their Congressional Members as well as
instructions on how best to ensure that your
voice is heard on Capitol Hill. We encourage you
to participate in this effort and take time to
explain to your Members of Congress that they
should view NIH as a national priority.
If additional funding is not added to the Labor-HHS-Education
Appropriations bill, NIH’s FY2007 appropriation
most likely will fall somewhere between the
levels recommended by the Senate ($28.5 billion,
a .78 percent increase) and House ($28.3
billion, an amount equal to FY2006).
NSF & DOE
Incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
(D-CA) met with President Bush after the
elections, and in an apparent effort to
demonstrate goodwill, Ms. Pelosi indicated that
Democrats will take up the “innovation agenda”
laid out by President Bush in his State of the
Union address last January and pass his proposal
to increase funding for basic research in the
physical sciences and alternative energy
programs. Therefore, this would mean that the
National Science Foundation (NSF) and Department
of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science would
receive significant increases in FY2007 and
beyond. The President’s American Competitiveness
Initiative proposed to double the budgets over
ten years for both agencies. And, at this point,
the House and Senate are backing the President’s
proposal and have recommended that NSF receive
$6.0 billion in FY2007, which would represent a
7.9 percent increase over FY2006, while DOE’s
Office of Science is scheduled to receive $4.1
billion, which would represent a 14.1 percent
increase over FY2006.
TOP OF PAGE
NIH REAUTHORIZATION
The election results completely changed the
outlook for NIH Reauthorization during the
lame-duck session. With Democrats poised to
become the majority party in January in
both the Senate and House of Representatives,
it’s expected that very little legislation is
likely to pass during the lame-duck session
unless the legislation enjoys broad support in
both Houses of Congress. While the NIH
Reauthorization bill passed overwhelmingly in
the House by a vote of 414-2, it does not enjoy
the same kind of support in the Senate.
Specifically, Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Arlen
Specter (R-PA) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) have
made it clear that they oppose capping NIH’s
annual growth rate at five percent, mandating
that fifty percent of all new dollars go to the
common fund, and allowing NIH to implement
organizational changes without the approval of
Congress.
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INSIDE (The Beltway) SCOOP
- Jon Retzlaff, Legislative Director
During the past few years, FASEB and the broader
biomedical research community have consistently
conveyed the message that the erosion of NIH’s
budget is occurring at a time when opportunities
for scientific progress and advances in human
health have never been greater. Unfortunately,
Administration officials and Republican leaders
have chosen to mostly ignore this message and
have continued to support inadequate budgets for
NIH since 2003.
However, the election results from November 7,
2006, provide us with an opportunity to alter
the dynamics surrounding the debate on funding
NIH. While in the minority, many influential
Democrats strongly criticized the Bush
Administration and Republican leaders for not
supporting NIH. Now that those same Democrats
will become part of the majority and control the
agenda on Capitol Hill, we are hopeful that
those who spoke so eloquently in support of the
agency (while in the minority) will introduce
proposals (when in the majority) to fund NIH at
sufficient levels to take advantage of the
enormous scientific opportunities that exist
today.
For example, earlier this year, the incoming
Chair of the House Appropriations Committee,
David Obey (D-WI) said, “Another area where we
are neglecting needed investments is biomedical
research at the National Institutes of Health.
By most measures, NIH is now going backward in
terms of research funding and purchasing power.
This is not the time to be slamming on the
brakes, as scientists begin to translate those
advances into new therapies for diseases like
cancer or Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.” In
addition, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), the
incoming Chairman of the Health, Environment,
Labor and Pensions Committee, expressed
astonishment that four out of five ideas were
rejected in FY2006. He further remarked that,
“This will be the highest percent of grant
rejections in decades. In these grants lie the
possibilities of life saving treatments and
cures.” Senator Kennedy concluded his statement
by pointing out that, “the possibility of
achieving breakthroughs that benefit every
family in America are virtually unlimited if we
invest the resources.”
And, while we understand that the
extraordinarily tight federal budgets will
continue, many influential Democrats have said
that NIH funding is important regardless of the
state of our current fiscal environment. For
example, the incoming Senate Assistant Majority
Leader, Richard Durbin (D-IL) recently stated,
“In this troubled time, when we are having
difficulties with our budget, the one area we
absolutely must protect is medical research at
the National Institutes of Health.” The incoming
Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations
Subcommittee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) also
recently said, “Medical research is the sole
hope we can provide to millions of Americans who
will experience disease and disability either in
their own lives or in their families.”
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