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INSIDE (The Beltway)
SCOOP–Jon Retzlaff, Legislative Director
While the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations
Bill is expected to be the toughest of all the
appropriations bills to reach agreement on (due
to the fact that the majority of the additional
$22 billion for non-defense domestic
discretionary programs is reserved for labor,
health and education programs), last week’s
final passage of the higher education
reconciliation bill actually provides an opening
for the House to support the Senate’s higher
funding level for NIH.
You may remember that the Democratic Congress
provided $12 billion more in the House and $10
billion more in the Senate for labor, health,
and education programs than the President
proposed in his FY2008 budget. The $2 billion
difference between the House and Senate is due
to the House’s decision to provide additional
funding for Pell Grants for low-income
undergraduate students. However, last week’s
final passage of the higher education
reconciliation bill created a $2 billion
mandatory account for Pell Grants, thereby
freeing the House Labor-HHS-Education
Appropriations Subcommittee from having to use
$2 billion of its discretionary allocation to
fund their proposed increase in Pell Grants.
Therefore, if the House and Senate agree to
conference its bill at the higher House
allocation level ($12 billion above President’s
FY2008 request), Chairman Obey will be able to
re-distribute $2 billion among labor, health and
education programs. And by providing NIH with
$250 million of the $2 billion, the House would
be able to match the Senate’s recommendation for
NIH in FY2008 ($29.9 billion).
However, the bigger question remains how to
retain the higher spending level (Congress’
proposal to spend $12 billion more than the
President) in final negotiations with the White
House. Our big concern is that there could be
increased pressure to simply trim the overall
price tag of the bill rather than devote the
additional $2 billion to other programs.
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