FY2008 APPROPRIATIONS BILLS

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NIH: House Passes Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill

On July 19, 2007, the House of Representatives passed the FY2008 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill by a vote of 276-140. The bill provides NIH with a $750 million increase (an increase of 2.6%) in FY2008. However, the actual NIH program increase would be $549 million (a 1.9% increase) because the House would require that NIH transfer $201 million of its increase to the Global AIDS fund.

House Member Statements re: the L/HHS Bill and NIH:  During the twenty-five hours of debate (which began on July 17, 2006), the following House Members made statements that referenced the overall bill and/or mentioned NIH:

House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) commented that the proposal for NIH is $1 billion more than the President requested and that the increased funds would allow NIH to increase (by 545) the number of new and competing research grants in FY2008.  Chairman Obey also pointed out that the $620 million increase NIH received in FY2007 is allowing NIH to support important initiatives, as well as an additional 992 research grants.  Mr. Obey also commented that he “makes no apology for the spending in this bill,” and said the bill looks large only in the context of the cuts that the Administration has made during the past few years.  During debate on the bill, Chairman Obey commented that he is being “whipsawed” because practically every House member is proposing to increase spending for a particular program, while at the same time, he is hearing that the White House is threatening to veto the bill because it includes too much spending.

Ranking Appropriations Committee Member Jerry Lewis (R-CA) expressed frustration that much of the Democrats’ rhetoric involves accusing Republicans of shortchanging important health and education programs.  Mr. Lewis pointed out that it was the Republican Congress that doubled NIH’s budget from 1998-2003, and informed House members that during the twelve years that Republicans controlled Congress, funding for programs in the L/HHS bill increased from $65 billion in 1994 to $150 billion in 2006.  Congressman Lewis said that an $85 billion increase over twelve years is hardly shortchanging important programs.  Mr. Lewis also expressed frustration with the significant increase in the current L/HHS bill and claimed that the subcommittee did not prioritize, and that it instead provided significant increases to all programs whether or not they deserved it.  He also said that it’s easy to blame the Administration, but as Appropriators, “we have a responsibility to be fiscally responsible.”    

L/HHS Subcommittee Ranking Member Jim Walsh (R-NY) complimented Chairman Obey on the bill and thanked him for working with the minority party during negotiations on the bill.  Congressman Walsh also said that he would not have written the bill any other way.

Former L/HHS Subcommittee Chairman Ralph Regula (R-OH) said that Chairman Obey did an excellent job and encouraged his fellow Republican members to support the bill.  Congressman Regula also complimented Mr. Obey for increasing NIH’s budget.

Representative Mike Castle (R-DE) commented that the 1.9% is nearly the smallest increase in 38 years for NIH and warned that new therapies will decline and the best and brightest will leave the field as a result.  Mr. Castle also said that he would have liked to add the stem cell provision to the bill, but recognized that it would not be possible because it would be subject to a point of order.

Floor Amendments:
House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joe Barton (R-TX) offered an amendment to increase NIH’s FY2008 appropriation by nearly $700 million by prohibiting the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from collecting the 2.4% of NIH’s budget that’s commonly been designated for program evaluation activities.  It’s been common practice for HHS to tap 2.4% of NIH’s budget to provide sister agencies with funds to pay for program evaluation activities.  For example, in FY2006, the Centers for Disease Control received $199 million of the 2.4% tap, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) received $234 million, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) received $91 million.  Three other agencies also received funding in FY2006 from the 2.4% program evaluation tap.  Mr. Barton’s amendment failed by a vote of 181-249, with no Democrats supporting the amendment.  While Mr. Barton should be applauded for trying to increase NIH funding, it’s difficult to support such an amendment because it would take money from other vital programs.  As you know, FASEB’s goal is to increase the overall L/HHS allocation and not resort to taking dollars from other vital programs to fund NIH. 

Chairman Obey was clearly irritated with many of the House Member amendments that proposed to increase funding for a particular program by taking money away from a different program.  The most commonly cited “offset” was agencies administrative costs.  Chairman Obey referred to the proposals to add money by cutting agencies administrative costs as “let’s pretend offsets,” and explained to the sponsors of these amendments that they should not be under any illusion that their amendment would survive the appropriations process.  In fact, Chairman Obey strongly defended the funding that is required for grant making agencies (such as NIH) to carry out their important oversight duties, and quipped that “occasionally there needs to be someone available to turn on the lights.”

President’s Veto Threat:

As debate on the House L/HHS Appropriations Bill began, the White House issued a statement of administration (SAP) policy on the bill (H.R. 3043, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008), declaring that the Administration “opposes the bill because, in combination with the other FY2008 appropriations bills, it includes an irresponsible and excessive level of spending and includes other objectionable provisions.” 

Specifically, President Bush is threatening to veto the Labor-HHS-Ed Appropriations Bill (once it is conferenced with the Senate) because the House bill spends $12 billion more than the President proposed to spend in his FY2008 budget.  And, at this point, the Senate proposes to spend $10 billion more than the President proposed.  In fact, the President’s budget actually proposes to cut Labor-HHS-Ed programs by $7.6 billion after accounting for inflation.  Chairman Obey decided to reinstate the cuts proposed by the President ($7.6 billion) and provide for an overall 3% increase ($4.3 billion).  And, after listening to many of the Appropriations Committee Members (from both sides of the aisle) offer amendments to increase funding for specific programs, Chairman Obey commented that it clearly indicated that the bill is far from being excessive in its spending. 

Comparison of FY2008 House & Senate L/HHS Appropriations Proposals for NIH Institutes and Centers (and Common Fund and Children’s Health Study)

Public Access Provision included in House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill

The House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill includes bill language concerning NIH’s public access policy.  Specifically, the language reads:

“Sec.217. The Director of the NIH shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the NLM’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication:  Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.”

This language is identical to what was included in the Senate Appropriations Labor-HHS-Education Bill.    

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DOE’s Office of Science: House Passes Energy and Water Appropriations Bill

On July 18, 2007, the House of Representatives passed the FY2008 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2641) by a vote of 312-112. The bill would provide the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science with an FY2008 appropriation of $4.516 billion, an increase of $717 million over it’s FY2007 funding level ($3.799 billion) and $116 million more than the President proposed for FY2008. This significant increase would amount to a nineteen percent increase over FY2007. The increase will allow DOE’s Office of Science to support 3,500 additional researchers and allow almost all of the science facilities to operate at maximum capacity. The President’s FY2008 request for DOE’s Office of Science was $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 nineteen percent increase recommended by the House is a significant step toward reaching this goal.
 

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NSF: House Appropriations Committee Passes Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Bill

On July 12, 2007, House Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Committee recommended that NSF receive a $593 million increase in FY2008, to $6.51 billion (a 10% increase). The House’s proposal is $80 million over the President’s FY2008 request ($6.429 million). The momentum for the proposed increase comes from the Innovation Agenda to keep America competitive in the global market.

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