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APPROPRIATIONS - PRESIDENT
SIGNS FY07 JOINT FUNDING RESOLUTION
The Senate approved the House-passed version of
the FY2007 Joint Funding resolution (H.J. Res.
20) on February 14, 2007, by a vote of 81-15,
and on February 15, 2007, President Bush signed
the $463.5 billion spending package to fund much
of the Federal government for the remainder of
FY2007. The spending measure filled the gap left
by the collapse of the budget process under
Republican rule last fall. The Joint Funding
resolution provides $28.9 billion for NIH in
FY2007, an increase of $620 million (2.2
percent) over FY2006. NSF received $5.9 billion
for FY2007, and DOE’s Office of Science FY2007
budget is $3.8 billion. The USDA’s National
Research Initiative’s (NRI) budget is $190
million, and the VA Medical Research Program was
funded at $412 million in FY2007.
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ACTIVITIES INVOLVING
PRESIDENT'S FY08 BUDGET REQUEST
FASEB Signs-on to Congressional Letter
asking for a 6.7% Increase for NIH
FASEB’s Board of Directors voted unanimously to
approve participation in the Coalition for
Health Funding, a non-profit alliance of fifty
national organizations that works to ensure that
health discretionary spending is regarded as a
budget priority, sign-on letter. A total of 384
advocacy groups supported the effort to ask all
Members of Congress to provide for significant
increases to public health programs in the
FY2008 budget resolution. Specifically, the
letter requests a $4 billion increase for Budget
Function 550. Budget Function 550 is a broad
category that includes Federal government
spending for health care services and
health-related research (NIH) and training. The
$4 billion increase reflects the 6.7% increase
for NIH recommended by FASEB and included in
FASEB’s FY2008 funding report.
Secretary Leavitt Testifies before House
and Senate Committees
On February 13, 2007, Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt
testified in front of the House and Senate
Budget Committees on the President’s FY2008
budget, and on February 27, 2007, he appeared
before the House Labor-HHS-Education
appropriations subcommittee. Secretary Leavitt
informed Members of Congress that the FY2008
proposal is a deficit reduction budget intended
to meet the President’s goal of eliminating the
deficit within 5 years. The Secretary admitted
that this required difficult decisions and
priority setting. Mr. Leavitt said that he
directed his staff to focus on high demand and
highly effective programs, support direct
services over building infrastructure and look
for savings from grant activities that have
reached their conclusion. Secretary Leavitt
cited NIH as an example where the Department of
HHS was able to identify many grant programs
whose purpose has been successfully completed.
The Secretary added that while NCI’s budget may
be smaller because of the completed grants not
being renewed, NCI actually will be able to
award more new and competitive grants in FY2008.
House Appropriations Hearing on NSF
Dr. Arden L. Bement, Director, National Science
Foundation, testified on March 1, 2007, before
the House Commerce, Justice, Science and Related
Agencies appropriations subcommittee on the
President’s FY2008 budget request for NSF. Dr.
Bement said that NSF annually receives 42,000
applications and that this represents a 47%
increase in applications over the past ten
years. He said that NSF’s success rate is
twenty-one percent, but that the agency is able
to fund sixty-six percent of the grants that are
determined sufficient for funding. Committee
members were very supportive of the NSF and the
work it supports. The members were unanimous in
expressing their commitment to doubling NSF’s
budget is doubled over ten years. Though,
numerous committee members encouraged Dr. Bement
to provide goals and benchmarks for the agency
as its budget increases.
FASEB Attends Seminar on President’s
FY2008 Budget Request
On February 13, 2007, AAAS sponsored a seminar
on the President’s FY2008 budget request. Sharon
Hays, Associate Director for Science, White
House Office of Science and Technology Policy,
provided information about the Administration’s
FY2008 budget request. Ms. Hays informed the
attendees that the President’s plan to balance
the budget in five years required “serious
priority setting,” and that discretionary
spending for non-defense, non-homeland security
programs would be relatively flat-funded (.67
percent increase) in FY2008. Ms. Hays also
commented that during President Bush’s tenure in
the White House, non-defense discretionary
spending has increased by twenty-six percent,
and that the President believes fundamental
research and discovery is a primary
responsibility of government. Hays also pointed
out that the President’s budget intended to
eliminate scientific earmarks (legislatively
directed projects). She said that there has been
a sixty percent increase in such earmarks since
2002- to $2.4 billion.
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INSIDE (The Beltway)
SCOOP - Jon Retzlaff
With Congress finally completing its work on the
FY2007 appropriations bills (albeit four months
into FY2007), it has now turned its attention to
the FY2008 budget process. During the past few
weeks, and continuing for the next month and a
half, Congress is listening to Administration
officials as they testify on behalf of the
President’s budget requests for FY2008. HHS
Secretary Mike Leavitt has testified before the
House and Senate Budget Committees and the House
Labor-Health-Education appropriations
subcommittee. Dr. Arden L. Bement, Director,
National Science Foundation (NSF), has testified
before the House Commerce, Justice, Science and
Related Agencies appropriations subcommittee,
and Dr. Elias Zerhouni is scheduled to testify
on March 6, 2007, in front of House Labor-HHS-Education
appropriations subcommittee members. The Senate
Labor-HHS-Education appropriations subcommittee
is scheduled to hear from Dr. Zerhouni on March
19, 2007, and plans are being made to schedule
four or five additional biomedical research
theme hearings.
These hearings provide an opportunity for
Members of Congress to express their support for
science, and point out that the proposal to flat
line NIH’s budget in FY2008 is shortsighted and
delays research that can benefit patients.
Because Administration officials must support
the President’s budget request, it is incumbent
upon FASEB and the broader research community to
communicate our concerns about the President’s
inadequate proposal for NIH in FY2008 and to
clearly delineate how NIH research impacts the
lives of people.
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