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APPROPRIATIONS - FY2007
JOINT FUNDING RESOLUTION
On January 31, 2007, the House approved the
Joint Funding resolution [also referred to as
the full-year FY2007 continuing resolution (CR)
(H.J. Res 20)] by a vote of 286-140. The
spending measure fills the gap left by the
collapse of the budget process under Republican
rule last fall. The Senate began debating the
measure on February 8, 2007, but with funding
for the government running out on February 15,
2007, both parties and the White House are eager
to resolve the fiscal crisis for FY2007 and move
on to the FY2008 budget process.
Total funding for the resolution, which covers
ten of the twelve appropriations bills, conforms
to the spending caps set by the White House last
year, but tilts now toward Democratic priorities
in health care and education.
Joint Funding Resolution Provides NIH with
$620 Million Increase in FY2007
The Joint Funding resolution provides the
National Institutes of Health with a $620
million increase to $28.931 billion in FY2007.
FASEB
applauded House passage of the Joint
Funding Resolution, and is actively encouraging
the Senate to do the same.
The significant NIH increase that was included
in the Joint Funding resolution is a tremendous
victory for biomedical researchers and all those
who support it. While the change in
Congressional leadership (as a result of the
elections) contributed to making this possible,
it still is highly unusual that an agency’s (NIH)
final funding level would exceed all three of
the FY2007 proposals put forward last year.
Remember, the President proposed flat funding,
the House did the same, and the Senate proposed
a $200 million increase for NIH. Therefore,
FASEB society scientists, as well as the entire
biomedical research community, deserve
tremendous credit for helping make this increase
possible. In fact, nearly 2,000 FASEB Society
members contacted their Members of Congress
during a 24-hour period when the final funding
decisions were being made, and more than 5,000
society members responded to an earlier alert to
ask their Members of Congress to support
additional increases for NIH.
According to Congressional leaders, the $620
million increase for NIH in FY2007 will allow
the agency to award an additional 500 research
grants. It will create a new $40 million program
(Junior Pioneer awards program) to support
innovative thinking and outside-the-box research
and looks to the future by providing $91 million
for grants to first-time investigators. The
measure also provides $443 million for the
common fund, an increase of $113 million over
the FY2006 level. However, appropriators will no
longer require NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs)
to transfer funds to the Common Fund, and
instead will provide funds directly to it. All
ICs will thus receive increases in FY2007 based
on not having to transfer dollars to the Common
Fund. In addition, the resolution includes $69
million for the National Children’s Study.
Joint Funding Resolution Provides NSF and
DOE with Significant Increases
While the Joint Funding resolution did not
completely embrace the American Competitiveness
Initiative to double spending on basic research
at NSF and DOE over 10 years, it did provide
significant increases to both agencies in
FY2007. The House-passed bill provided $4.7
billion, an increase of $335 million, in the
NSF’s research account to fund Innovation
Programs. The Department of Energy’s Office of
Science is funded at $3.8 billion in FY2007, an
increase of $200 million. Both increases result
in a hefty down-payment towards enhancing U.S.
global competitiveness by investing in basic
science research.
PRESIDENT'S FY2008 BUDGET
REQUEST FOR NIH, NSF, DOE, USDA, VA and NASA
Overview
President Bush released his FY2008 budget
proposal on Monday, February 5, 2007. Defense
and Homeland Security accounts receive the bulk
of the increases, while the President’s budget
would squeeze non-security programs to a one
percent annual growth rate in order to meet his
goal of erasing the deficit by 2012. Rob
Portman, the President’s Budget Director, stated
that the one percent increase in non-security
domestic spending “is adequate to fund the
nation’s priorities.”
FASEB issued a
press release stating that President
Bush has failed to live up to his promise of
nourishing NIH, especially in light of the
FY2007 Joint Funding resolution, which provides
NIH with a $620 million increase. However, the
press release also praised the President for
conveying a commitment to America’s future
through the American Competitiveness
Initiative’s continued support of the National
Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of
Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science.
NIH
At first glance, it appears that the President’s
FY2008 budget proposal includes an increase of
$232 million for NIH, to $28.621 billion (the
President’s Labor-Health-Education
appropriations request for NIH). However, when
reading the fine print, it was discovered that
the President’s FY2008 budget proposes to
increase the amount of dollars that NIH must
transfer to the Global AIDS Fund by $200 million
over FY2007. Therefore, based on the President’s
assumptions for NIH’s FY2007 funding level, the
net effect is that NIH would receive a paltry
$32 million increase in FY2008 under the
President’s proposal. The $32 million increase
amounts to a 0.1 percent increase for the
agency.
The President’s proposal looks even worse when
compared to the funding level proposed for NIH
in the FY2007 Joint Funding Resolution ($28.931
billion for NIH). In fact, the President’s
FY2008 proposal for NIH would represent more
than a $500 million cut from the House-passed
joint funding resolution. NIH’s purchasing power
would continue to decline in FY2008 under the
President’s proposal because the Biomedical
Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI) is
forecasted to be 3.7 percent in FY2008.
Specific NIH Budget Information relating to the
President’s FY2008 proposal:
• Research Project Grants (RPG’s) represent 53
percent of the total NIH budget request.
• NIH plans to support 10,188 new and competing
RPG’s in FY2008, an increase of 566 over FY2007.
• The average cost of a new and competing
renewal project grant in FY2008 will be about
$350,000, with no increase provided for
inflation.
• The FY2008 budget allocates a total of $486
million, an increase of $72 million, or 17
percent, over FY2007, to continue support for
trans-NIH Roadmap initiatives (Common Fund) in
accordance with the strategic plan developed in
September 2003.
• The FY2008 budget includes $31 million, an
increase of $16 million, to double the funding
available across the NIH ICs for the “Pathways
to Independence” program to provide increased
and stable support for new research
investigators.
• For FY2008, the President’s budget proposes a
total of $1.7 billion for NIH biodefense
efforts, a net decrease of $8 million or 0.4
percent, below FY2007.
Additional information about how the President’s
FY2008 budget will affect NIH can be found
here.
NSF
The President’s FY2008 budget proposes that the
National Science Foundation (NSF) continue down
the path described in the American
Competitiveness Initiative (ACI), which aims to
double the budgets of NSF and DOE over the
course of a 10-year period. NSF would receive
$6.43 billion in the President’s budget. Given
congressional support
for the ACI, as shown through the introduction
of numerous bills aimed at increasing the U.S.’s
scientific competitiveness, it seems likely
these numbers would be supported by Congress. A
link to the NSF budget request can be found
here.
DOE
Similar to the NSF budget, the President
recommended the Department of Energy’s (DOE)
Office of Science receive an increase in FY2008
that continues toward the path described in the
American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI). DOE’s
Office of Science would receive $4.398 billion
in the President’s budget.
USDA
The President’s FY2008 budget proposes a
significant increase for the USDA’s National
Research Initiative (NRI), recommending a
funding level of $257 million. This is
approximately $67 million over the FY2007
funding level in the House-passed joint funding
resolution. However, much of the increase is
targeted to “high priority” research areas,
including $19 million for bio-based fuels as
part of the President’s alternative energy
initiative. At a briefing releasing the budget,
USDA Secretary Mike Johanns stated that the
Administration is emphasizing the importance of
competitive research grants through the NRI.
This was clearly to deflect criticism that the
FY2008 proposal also includes the loss of
several hundred million dollars of projects
funded through the Agricultural Research Service
(ARS) via congressional earmarks, a topic of
great interest to reporters present at the
briefing. In answer to questions about whether
the cuts will make the U.S. less competitive in
agricultural research or if the cut projects had
no value, Johanns stated simply that the
President was not going to fund earmarks,
supported competitive research, and wished to
bring greater transparency to the budget
process. The proposed amount for ARS in the
FY2008 budget is $1.056 billion. The USDA budget
request to Congress can be found
here.
VA
In FY2008, $411 million is requested for the VA
Medical Research Program. The President intended
to provide a $2 million increase based on his
assumption that the VA Medical Research
Program’s budget in FY2007 would be $409
million. However, the Joint Funding resolution
proposes to fund the VA Medical Research program
at $412 million in FY2007. Therefore, some may
view the President’s proposal as a cut.
For more information, read the
press release from VA.
NASA
President Bush’s FY2008 budget for NASA’s Human
System Research and Technology (HRS&T) theme is
quite disappointing this year. This budget
requests greatly fails FASEB’s FY2008 funding
recommendation that NASA restore funding for
basic life sciences research, increase funding
for “countermeasures research” needed for human
space travel, and allocate funding to
investigator-initiated, peer reviewed life
sciences research in FY2008. Detailed
information on the NASA budget can be found on
its
web
site.
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