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STATUS OF FY2008 BUDGET
RESOLUTION & APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS
This week, the Senate and House appointed
conferees to begin final deliberations on the
FY2008 budget resolution, although floor action
is not expected until next week. The budget
blueprint is important to the research community
for one overriding reason. It sets an overall
discretionary spending cap for the
Appropriations Committee.
As you know, the Senate and House took the
necessary initial steps to increase funding for
non-defense discretionary programs when each
designated a much greater amount for these
programs than was provided by the President in
his FY2008 budget request. Specifically, the
Senate provided an additional $16 billion for
non-defense discretionary spending (on top of
the President’s request) and the House provided
$22 billion more for non-defense domestic
discretionary spending than the President
proposed for the fiscal year that begins October
1, 2007.
In response to the announcement that budget
conferees would be meeting to reconcile their
differences, FASEB society members were asked to
tell their respective Members of
Congress to support the higher level of funding
for discretionary programs. In addition, FASEB
sent a
letter to each of the budget conferees
asking that they support the additional $22
billion for domestic programs.
Once the overall discretionary cap is set, the
Chairmen of the respective Senate and House
Appropriations Committees [Representative David
Obey (D-WI) and Robert Byrd (D-WV)] will provide
individual allocations to their twelve
subcommittees. FASEB sent
faxes to every Member of Congress asking them to
support the higher level for discretionary
spending and requested that they encourage their
Appropriations Chairman to provide the Labor-HHS-Education
(L/HHS) appropriations subcommittee with a $14
billion increase over last year. In addition,
FASEB signed on to a
letter from the Coalition for Health Funding
requesting the additional $14 billion for the L/HHS
appropriations subcommittee.
FASEB'S ALERT: FY08 BUDGET RESOLUTION
On May 9, 2007, FASEB’s Office of Public Affairs
sent out an
alert to society members explaining how
the next two weeks would determine the level of
appropriations that can be attained in FY2008
for the research agencies we support (NIH, NSF,
DOE, VA, USDA and NASA), and urging their
respective House and Senate Members to support
the Congressional budget proposal to provide an
additional $22 billion for discretionary
spending, and request that they encourage
Appropriations Committee Chairmen Obey and Byrd
to provide a $14 billion increase to the Labor-HHS-Education
appropriations subcommittee in FY2008.
FASEB and the broader research community have
been advocating for a 6.7% increase for NIH in
FY2008. However, the only way this goal can
possibly be attained is by ensuring that the
Labor-HHS-Education appropriations subcommittee
receives an allocation increase (over FY2007) of
something close to $14 billion.
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SENATE DEAR COLLEAGUE RE: NIH
FUNDING
FASEB Encourages Senate to Support Dear
Colleague Letter to Increase NIH’s Budget – 48
Members Sign-On
FASEB partnered with the broader medical
research community to ask individual Senators to
sign-on to a Dear Colleague letter from Senators
Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Chris
Dodd (D-CT) and Richard Burr (R-NC) requesting
that Appropriations Committee Members provide a
6.7 percent increase for the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) in FY2008. FASEB has stated that
a 6.7 percent increase in NIH funding for each
of the next three years would at least recoup
the losses caused by biomedical research
inflation since 2003.
During the days leading up to the deadline for
signatures, FASEB’s Board of Directors and
Science Policy Committee Members contacted
Members of the Senate and requested
their support. A total of 48 Senators
signed the Dear Colleague letter, which
was provided to Senate Appropriations Chairman
Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Ranking Member Thad
Cochran (R-MS).
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INSIDE (The Beltway) SCOOP- Jon
Retzlaff
If the House and Senate agree on an FY2008
budget resolution next week, it will pave the
way for the first appropriations process under
Democratic control of both chambers in 12 years.
This change in leadership in Congress has
provided the research community with an
opportunity to change the dimensions of the
debate for increasing NIH’s budget.
For the past three years, President Bush
submitted budget proposals which flatlined NIH
funding, and the Republican Congress, in
essence, rubber stamped the President’s
recommendations. However, this year, Democrats
have rejected the President’s plan to freeze
overall non-defense discretionary spending and
are prepared to increase the pot for domestic
programs by as much as $22 billion over the
President’s request. The fact that top Senate
and House negotiators are discussing providing
an additional $22 billion for domestic programs
underscores Congress’ determination to provide
significant increases for valuable Federal
programs, such as for NIH and other science
programs.
There is a real opportunity for the research
community to weigh in on this debate, which is
why FASEB’s Office of Public Affairs is
encouraging society members to
contact their House and Senate Members
of Congress and specifically asking them to
support the increased funding for discretionary
programs, as well as encouraging them to
recommend to the Appropriations Committee
Chairmen David Obey (D-WI) and Robert Byrd
(D-WV) that a $14 billion increase is allocated
to the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations
subcommittee. This would provide the resources
to the subcommittee that are necessary for NIH
to receive a 6.7 percent increase in FY2008.
During the April 20, 2007, Senate L/HHS
Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the
burden of chronic diseases, Ranking Member Arlen
Specter (R-PA) remarked during his opening
statement that he, “never misses an opportunity
to emphasize the importance of recruiting some
political muscle…which needs to come from those
in the research field to pressure the Congress.”
Therefore, please take a moment and click on the
link below to put some pressure on your Members
of Congress to increase research funding for the
agencies we advocate for (NIH, NSF, DOE, VA,
USDA and NASA).
http://capwiz.com/faseb/issues/alert/?alertid=9722801&type=CO
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