NIH Funding Update

By very narrow margins, both the House and Senate recently passed a $2.56 trillion federal budget proposal for 2006.  The vote was 214-211 in the House and 52-47 in the Senate.  The federal budget sets the stage for the appropriations bills, which determine the spending levels for the various departments and agencies (e.g., NIH).  Similar to the White House’s budget proposal, the Congressional plan calls for cuts in all areas of discretionary spending except for defense and homeland security.  Defense spending would receive a 4.8 percent increase, reaching a total of nearly $420 billion, and national security spending would receive a 2.3 percent increase to $32.5 billion.   The total budget allocation for all other spending areas would shrink by about 1 percent to $391.1 billion.  The President is expected to sign the measure. 

These figures have tremendous implications for domestic spending on health care and research.  Because there will be significantly less money to be allocated during the appropriations process for non-defense spending,  the various domestic spending categories like environment, health care, and education will be competing for a smaller pot of money than in previous years.  Consequently, most departments and agencies will face budget cuts. 

Although Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) was able to win approval by a vote of 63 to 37 for an amendment (S. AMDT 173) to the Senate’s version of the budget resolution (S.Con.Res. 18) that called for an additional $1.5 billion appropriation for NIH, that amendment was not included in the conference agreement negotiated by House and Senate leaders to reconcile differences in the budget resolutions passed by their respective chambers.   The revised budget proposal that emerged from that process was then passed by both houses on April 28^th.