The appropriations process and specifically, action on the FY2008 Labor-HHS-Education (L/HHS) Appropriations bill hit its stride during the past two weeks as Senate and House leaders settled on a strategy for trying to complete work on the measure that funds everything from biomedical research to education and low-income energy assistance. Unfortunately, in its last act of legislative business before recessing for the Thanksgiving break, the House of Representatives, failed to override the President’s veto of the L/HHS bill. Therefore, NIH will continue to be funded through a continuing resolution (CR) until at least December 14, 2007.


The following list of events summarize (via a timeline) the major actions that occurred on the L/HHS bill since the beginning of November and culminates with the House’s failure to override President Bush’s veto of the L/HHS bill.

November 1, 2007: House-Senate Conference on the FY2008 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill (H.R. 3043)

House-Senate conferees met in the morning to resolve all outstanding differences between their respective House and Senate-passed L/HHS bills. And, by that afternoon, the conference was completed and the L/HHS conference/coordinated bill was ready to be voted on by each body of Congress. The conferees agreed to several changes to the underlying bill, including:

1)   House and Senate conferees agreed to support an FY2008 funding level for NIH of $30 billion.  Prior to the conference, FASEB sent individual letters to the House and Senate conferees requesting that they support the Senate recommended funding level for NIH ($29.9 billion) as opposed to the House-recommended funding level ($29.65 billion).  In addition, FASEB sent out alerts and asked society members to contact their respective members of Congress, requesting that they support the Senate proposal for higher NIH funding.  In the end, the conferees actually added an additional $100 million beyond even what the Senate had proposed for NIH in FY2008.  It is a very rare occurrence when conferees actually agree to exceed the higher level of funding specified in either the House or Senate-passed bill.  During the conference negotiations, L/HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) pointed out that this is the first time in five years that NIH’s increase will keep up with biomedical inflation.  House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) explained that had Congress agreed with the President’s FY2008 proposal for NIH (which proposed to cut NIH by $400 million), 1,100 research grants (over two years) would have been cut.  This development clearly is a very big victory for those supporting biomedical research, and our community owes a great deal of gratitude toward Senators Harkin and Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Representatives Obey and James Walsh (R-NY).  FASEB issued a press release thanking our Congressional champions for their outstanding commitment to NIH. 

2)   Congressional leaders agreed to attach the Military Construction – Veteran’s Affairs Appropriations bill to the L/HHS bill.  House and Senate Democratic leaders believed that President Bush would be less likely to veto a bill that combined spending for veteran’s health care, education and medical research.  The decision to add the Military Construction/Veteran’s Affairs measure to the L/HHS bill was criticized by Republicans and was expected to complicate matters once the House and Senate voted on the bill.  Republican conferees expressed concern that funding for veterans would be delayed because of the President’s plan to veto the L/HHS bill.  House Appropriations Chairman Obey responded to these criticisms by stating that he compromised by agreeing to not also attach the Defense Appropriations Bill to the L/HHS bill, and he asked Republicans to exhibit the same kind of willingness to compromise by being open to combining the L/HHS and VA bills.

November 6, 2007: House Passes FY2008 L/HHS Conference Report (H.R. 3043)

On November 6, 2007, the House of Representatives passed the Labor-HHS-Education (L/HHS) and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs (VA) conference/coordinated report (spending bill) by a vote of 269-142 (22 not voting).  While this final vote tally was a few votes shy of the two-thirds that would be necessary to override an expected Presidential veto, many hoped that the vote would be different when the bill comes back to the House for another vote (necessitated by the fact that the Senate had indicated that it would vote to strip the VA portion from the bill).  And in fact, much the debate in the House focused on the decision by Democrats to combine the two bills.  Republicans argued that Democrats are trying to use veterans to pass a bill that they know the President would veto if sent as a stand-alone bill.  Republicans called for Democrats to cease using veterans as political pawns and drop the VA bill and send it to the President as a single bill so as not to delay funding for our veterans. 

It was clear that the House was going to be required to vote again on the conference/coordinated report because the Senate was going to raise a procedural objection to the decision to combine the two bills.  And in fact, 44 Republican senators signed a letter indicating that they would indeed object to this strategy.  Only 40 votes are required to succeed on such a motion.

During the House debate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) made an impassioned statement that focused entirely on the importance of the “lifesaving biomedical research supported by NIH.” Speaker Pelosi explained that if Congress went along with the President’s threat to not spend one additional dollar above his budget request, it would mean $1.4 billion less for NIH in FY2008. Speaker Pelosi said that the $1.4 billion for NIH is not even enough to meet the agency’s ability to fund grants in a responsible way. She pointed out that 550,000 die each year of cancer and asked House members to think of the return in scientific advancement we could achieve if we doubled NCI’s budget.” Ms. Pelosi explained that research on cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, HIV-AIDS, Parkinson’s and diabetes would all benefit with a robust investment in NIH. She said that there are so many scientific opportunities that exist, but that we are ignoring because of inadequate funds and asked, “How do we justify that!” Speaker Pelosi concluded by saying that lives depend on this vote and asked, “How can we not afford to invest in research, but we can afford to invest $1 trillion in Iraq, much of which is unaccounted for.”

House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) explained that if Congress followed the President’s proposal, medical research would be cut by $480 million. Mr. Obey stated that he has never had anyone ever come up to him and ask him to cut cancer research.” But he pointed out that that’s exactly what Republicans did in FY2005 and FY2006 when they cut 1,100 grants from NIH. Mr. Obey said that the L/HHS conference/coordinated report provides $1.4 billion above the President’s request and explained that this increase is equal to what it costs to spend three days fighting in Iraq.

In addition, during consideration of the rules of debate for the L/HHS bill, practically every Democrat highlighted in his or her remarks that the bill would provide vital support for NIH. Specifically, Peter Welch (D-VT) pointed out that the bill makes a fundamental commitment to the NIH and renews our support for basic research. He explained that there’s been a lack of investment at NIH since 2003. David Loebsack (D-IA) expressed concern that NIH has fallen behind inflation for many years running and pointed out that there is great work being done at the University of Iowa.

November 7, 2007: Senate Passes FY2008 L/HHS Conference Report (H.R. 3043)

On November 7, 2007, and as expected, the Senate voted to separate the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs appropriations bill from the L/HHS conference/coordinated report. The Senate proceeded to pass the L/HHS appropriations measure by a vote of 56-37 (7 did not vote) and sent the measure back to the House for a final vote before it could be sent to the President. The final tally in the Senate on the L/HHS bill clearly was a disappointment because nineteen Senators (who supported the measure on October 23, 2007) reversed course and voted against the bill.

November 8, 2007: House Passes Revised FY2008 L/HHS Conference Report (H.R. 3043)

Of course, the Senate’s action to amend the L/HHS conference/coordinated report resulted in the House having to pass the revised version. And on November 8, 2007, the House passed the amended L/HHS conferenced/coordinated bill by a vote of 274-141, with 17 House members (9 Democrats and 8 Republicans) not voting. Once again, the House came up short  (by three votes) in terms of required two-thirds necessary to override a Presidential veto. The magic number is 290 (assuming all 435 House members vote). FASEB praised Congress for passing the NIH funding bill and called on the President to sign it into law.

November 13, 2007: President Bush Vetoes FY2008 L/HHS Conference Report (H.R. 3043)

On November 13, 2007, the President vetoed the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 Labor-HHS-Education (L/HHS) appropriations bill (H.R. 3043), which included $30 billion for NIH and represented an increase of $900 million for research. In his veto statement, the President said the bill spends too much, continues to fund programs that are duplicative or ineffective and includes too many earmarks. In addition, in its Statement of Administration Policy (SAP), the White House included a paragraph on how the President is committed to biomedical research and supported this claim by stating that funding for medical research at NIH has increased by 42% since 2001.

November 15, 2007: House FAILS to Overvide President’s Veto of the L/HHS Appropriations Bill (H.R. 3043)

In its final act of legislative business before recessing for the two-week Thanksgiving holiday recess, the House failed in its attempt to override the President’s veto of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 Labor-HHS-Education (L/HHS) appropriations bill (H.R. 3043). The vote of 277-141 fell two votes shy of the two-thirds majority that is required to override a Presidential veto. During the debate, Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) said that it’s not credible for a President to ask Congress to spend an additional $200 billion for the Iraq war and then turn around and tell Congress that it can’t make basic investments in health care, education and medical research. Mr. Obey also reached out to Republicans when he stated, “I think at least fifty percent of you care about medical research as much as I do,” and talked about how NIH protects our ability to fight disease. Mr. Obey warned Republicans that if the veto is sustained, they will have to take full responsibility for the cuts that will occur once Congress returns from the Thanksgiving recess.

In our attempt to influence the outcome, FASEB’s Office of Public Affairs provided a letter of support for overriding the veto to everyone of the 435 House offices, as well as targeted eighteen Republican House members who had either voted for the L/HHS bill when it passed the House last July but opposed the conferenced/coordinated measure last week OR voted for the L/HHS bill when it passed the House last July but signed a letter agreeing to sustain the President’s veto. FASEB sent e-mails to our 14,000 strong e-action members who reside in one of those eighteen targeted Republican districts and requested that they call their respective House member's office.
 

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STATUS OF NSF’s FY2008 APPROPRIATIONS BILL:

As you may recall, on October 16, 2007, the Senate passed H.R. 3093, a $54.6 billion FY2008 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations bill. The Senate bill would provide $6.553 billion to NSF, which is $636 million above FY2007 and $124 million above the President’s request; the increase for NSF over FY2007 fulfills the bipartisan American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) to double the budgets of the NSF and Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science over ten years. However, the President has threatened to veto the CJS bill because, overall, it provides $3.4 billion more than he requested in his FY2008 budget.

The House passed a $53.8 billion version of the appropriations bill in July that would allocate $6.5 billion to NSF in 2008 and would provide $44 million less to NSF in FY2008 than the Senate bill. Although the House and Senate had planned to conference their two versions of the bill to reconcile the differences on November 14, and although Democrats had hoped to vote on the final conferenced/coordinated version of the bill during the week of November 12 before leaving for Thanksgiving recess, Democrats indefinitely postponed the conference committee meeting on the bill to resolve a dispute over a provision that Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced.

FASEB has sent letters to the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee to thank them for passing the CJS bill in July and to every member of the House and Senate Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittees to request they pick the higher $6.553 billion Senate number for funding to NSF when they conference the CJS bill. At this point, we don’t expect the House and Senate to vote on the conferenced/coordinated CJS bill until after Congress returns from its Thanksgiving recess in December.
 

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