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APPROPRIATIONS -
STATUS & OUTLOOK FOR FY2007 SPENDING BILLS (NIH,
NSF & DOE)
Congress plans to send only two appropriations
bills to the President for his signature before
it adjourns for the November elections. The
Homeland Security and Defense appropriations
conference reports are expected to be voted on
within the next couple weeks, and signed into
law by the President before the FY2007 year
begins on October 1, 2006. These two bills tie
into the Republican “security first” strategy.
Therefore, even though Senate Appropriations
Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) was able to pass
all twelve spending bills quickly in order to be
better positioned to reach the floor, ten of his
spending bills won’t be considered until the
“lame-duck” session in November and December. In
the meantime, Congress will need to pass a
short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep
departments and agencies running until they
receive a permanent FY2007 appropriation.
Congress may decide to pass either a
freestanding CR bill or include it as part of
the Defense appropriations bill. Many are
predicting that the CR will run through November
17, 2006.
In addition, you may remember that the House L/HHS
Appropriations bill remains the lone spending
bill not to have reached the House floor. Many
expect that Congressional leaders will bypass
floor action on the L/HHS bill and proceed
directly to a House-Senate conference.
The Senate Appropriations Committee recommended
that NIH receive $28.459 billion in FY2007, an
increase of $220 million, which is less than a
one-percent increase [0.78%] over its FY2006
appropriation, whereas the House agreed with the
President’s proposal to flat fund NIH in FY2007.
You also may remember that both the House and
Senate agreed to provide NSF and DOE’s Office of
Science with funding levels close to what the
President recommended. The FY2007 budget for NSF
is expected to reach $6.0 billion, which would
represent a 7.9 percent increase over FY2006.
The FY2007 budget for the Department of Energy’s
Office of Science will most likely be $4.1
billion, which would represent a 14.1 percent
increase over FY2006.
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NIH REAUTHORIZATION
On Tuesday, September 12, 2006, the House Energy
and Commerce Committee released its NIH
Reauthorization Reform Act of 2006. House Energy
and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton
(R-TX) plans to hold a hearing on the bill on
September 19, 2006, and will mark-up the bill
the following day.
Chairman Barton’s main provisions are explained
below:
1. Overall NIH Authorization Levels
The overall authorization levels for NIH would
increase each year of the authorization period
(FY2007-FY2009) beginning at 5% in fiscal year
2007. Chairman Barton has stated that he plans
to fight for NIH receiving the five-percent
increase each year.
2. Appropriating to Individual Institutes
and Centers (ICs)
Chairman Barton’s proposal would not do anything
to discourage appropriators from continuing to
provide funding to the individual ICs.
3. NIH Common Fund
Through the newly established Division of
Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic
Initiatives, the NIH Director is authorized to
identify research that is important to the
advancement of biomedical science and involves
the responsibilities of more than one institute
or center (trans-NIH research activities).
Trans-NIH research may include important areas
of emerging scientific opportunities, rising
public health challenges, or knowledge gaps that
deserve special emphasis and would benefit from
additional research that involves collaboration
between two or more institutes or centers or
would otherwise benefit from strategic
coordination and planning.
The bill establishes a “common fund” to provide
a permanent funding mechanism for trans-NIH
research projects identified through the
Division. The common fund is a reserve account
that may be competitively drawn down by
institutes, centers, and independent
investigators to advance trans-NIH research. The
common fund will grow to 5% of the total NIH
budget, based on overall funding increases made
through the annual appropriations process. Half
of all new money appropriated to NIH will be
reserved in the common fund until the common
fund reaches 5%. Once the common fund reaches 5%
of the total NIH budget, the Director of NIH in
consultation with an advisory council must
submit recommendations to Congress on changes to
the amount of reservation for the common fund.
The Director must ensure that the Division, in
coordination with the heads of ICs, preserve an
emphasis on investigator-initiated research
project grants, and when appropriate, maximize
investigator-initiated research project grants
in their (individual IC) annual research
portfolios. In addition, the Director must
ensure that the Division grants appropriate
consideration of proposals for which the
principal investigator is a first time applicant
at NIH. A new advisory council, to be known as
the “Council of Councils” will review the trans-NIH
proposals and make recommendations regarding
which projects should be funded.
4. Scientific Management Review Group” to
Determine Structural Changes
The bill establishes a formal, public process to
review the structural organizational design of
the agency every seven years. A “scientific
management review” group comprised of institute
and center directors and other scientific
experts will evaluate the structural design of
the existing institutes and centers at NIH, and
proposed new institutes, and recommend necessary
restructuring plans. After a series of
statutorily required public meetings, the
scientific management review board must issue
its first report to Congress within 18 months of
the date of enactment of the bill. The
scientific management review board must conduct
a review of the agency and issue a report at
least once every seven years. If a
recommendation is made regarding organizational
authorities, and the NIH official responsible
for overseeing the change must initiate the
public process toward making the change within
100 days, with the change fully implemented
within a three year period. If the Director of
NIH objects to a recommendation, he may submit
within 90 days a report to Congress outlining
the reasons for not implementing the
recommendation.
5. Agency-Wide Reporting System
The bill creates a new, comprehensive electronic
reporting system that will catalogue all of the
research activities of the NIH in a standardized
format. The NIH Director will be asked to
compile biennially a report that comprehensively
lays out the strategic plans and research
activities of the agency. The committee believes
such increased transparency of NIH research
activities will highlight areas of ongoing
research to improve research portfolio
management, provide greater accountability of
research dollars, and spur creative thinking
about new scientific approaches. This
information will be beneficial for independent
investigators, public advocacy groups, NIH
internally, and Congress.
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INSIDE (The Beltway) SCOOP
- Jon Retzlaff, Legislative Director
FASEB’s Board met on Friday, September 15, 2006,
and voted to endorse Chairman Barton’s NIH
Reauthorization legislation and encouraged its
President, Leo Furcht, M.D., to testify at the
House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on
September 19, 2006.
FASEB, the Association of American Medical
Colleges (AAMC), the Association of American
Universities (AAU), and the National Association
of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC)
have engaged in many hours of discussions over
the past few months with Chairman Barton and his
staff regarding many of the key provisions
included in Mr. Barton’s proposal. The
Chairman’s willingness to communicate with
stakeholders and listen to the research
community concerns was extraordinary.
Chairman Barton believes that his bill makes an
excellent agency even better. He has promised to
advocate for additional funding increases for
NIH and persuade other fiscal conservative
members of Congress to support increasing the
agency’s budget by five percent for each of the
next three years because he believes his
provisions will ensure that the money
appropriated to NIH is being spent both wisely
and effectively.
We especially applaud Chairman Barton’s
leadership in calling on the NIH to emphasize
and preserve investigator-initiated,
competitive, peer reviewed grants. FASEB’s
testimony will highlight how this mechanism
allows highly skilled scientists to propose the
direction and priorities for further research,
based on their own expertise and insight, as
well as point out that investigator initiated,
competitive research has proven extraordinarily
successful in generating the research
discoveries that have led to some of our most
effective medical treatments.
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