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FEBRUARY 2007
Proposal Effectively Cuts Funding for NIH but Offers FDA a Slight Increase Compared to FY 2007 On Monday, February 5, President George W. Bush announced his Administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2008 budget proposal. Overall, the $2.9 trillion spending plan calls for increased spending on military programs, while squeezing many domestic discretionary programs in health care and education. It is important to note that the President’s FY 2008 Budget proposal uses the President’s FY 2007 Budget proposal for comparison purposes, not the funding levels included in the final FY 2007 Joint Funding resolution approved by the House of Representatives last week. This summary will use what are likely to be the final funding levels for FY 2007 to offer a more realistic picture of what the President is proposing for FY 2008.
NIH The President’s Budget also proposes total funding of $486 million for the NIH Common Fund, with $122 million from the Office of the Director and $364 million from the Institutes and Centers.
NCI FDA Within FDA, the President’s Budget includes $481 million in funding for the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Moreover, at FDA, the President’s Budget proposal includes $138.82 million for the “The Modernizing Drug Safety Initiative,” which will revolutionize FDA’s ability to identify safety issues and rapidly and effectively communicate known and emerging safety concerns to health professionals, patients, and the public. The funding in this initiative will allow FDA to make essential progress on multiple paths to modernize drug safety, including: strengthening best practices for conducting quantitative benefit-risk assessment; conducting a pilot to review safety profiles of new molecular entities (NMEs) on a scheduled basis and establish whether FDA should initiate reviews for all NMEs; accessing additional databases for drug and biologic safety surveillance and analysis; and, upgrading the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) by adding detection and tracking tools that allow reviewers to more efficiently and effectively identify and track safety signals from an ever-increasing number of adverse events reports. The Budget Online More detailed information on the President’s FY 2008 Budget proposal is available online at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/budget/2008/index.html.Next Steps The release of the President’s Budget is just the first step in the federal budget process. In the coming months, the House and the Senate will each compile their own budget proposals that will include spending for priorities that differ with the Bush Administration’s plan for FY 2008. FOCR will keep you informed as the budget debate unfolds over the coming months. If you have questions, or need more information, please contact FOCR Director of Government Affairs Jeff Coughlin at (703) 302-1543 or jcoughlin@focr.org.
Continuing resolution (CR) funds remaining appropriations bills through February 15, 2007 The House and Senate are moving closer to wrapping up the fiscal year (FY) 2007 appropriations process that the 109th Congress postponed final action on in December 2006. On Friday, December 8, the House and Senate approved a long-term continuing resolution (CR) that funded the remaining nine annual appropriations bills through February 15, 2007, leaving the job of finishing FY 2007 funding to the new 110th Congress. New House and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairs Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV), and Representative Dave Obey (D-WI) have crafted a long-term CR through September 30, 2007, that includes “limited adjustments” for some agencies/programs to address the nation's most important policy concerns. The House approved the FY 2007 Joint House-Senate Funding Resolution (the new long-term CR) on Wednesday, January 31, and the Senate is expected to vote on the measure on Wednesday, February 7. The Joint Funding Resolution includes $28.93 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a $620 million or 2 percent increase over FY 2006. That increase will allow NIH to award an additional 500 research grants to our nation’s brightest biomedical scientists, in areas such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. It will also create a new $40 million Junior Pioneer Award program to support innovative, thinking-outside-the-box research. Moreover, the resolution looks to the future by providing $91 million for grants to first-time investigators –our nation’s next generation of biomedical researchers.For the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the resolution provides $4.79 billion, the same level as FY 2006. In addition, the resolution also appropriates $483 million specifically for the NIH Common Fund. This is a change based on the passage of the National Institutes of Health Reform Act of 2006 in December of last year. In previous years, Institutes and Centers contributed a uniform percentage of their appropriations to the Common Fund. Since NCI no longer has to contribute to the Common Fund, the Institute will effectively receive an increase for FY 2007 of $46 million —the amount that it contributed to Common Fund/Roadmap for Medical Research in FY 2006.For the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Joint Funding Resolution provides $1.96 billion in FY 2007, an $89.2 million or 4.75 percent increase over FY 2006. Of that total funding level, $352.2 million will be derived from prescription drug user fees. Moreover, $567 million of the $1.96 billion FDA Budget is for the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research and related field activities. If you have questions, or need more information, please contact Friends Director of Government Affairs Jeff Coughlin at (703) 302-1543 or jcoughlin@focr.org: < mailto:jcoughlin@focr.org> .
As part of our increased efforts to provide up-to-date information on relevant issues, Friends will be sending out timely policy alerts of importance to the cancer and medical research communities. These will be in addition to the Friends’ monthly newsletter. If you do not want to receive the policy alerts but do want to continue receiving the monthly newsletter, please click the "update profile" link at the end of your email message containing the link to this newsletter and select the "no special policy alerts" option. Thank you. Below are links to the most recent policy alerts:
Fran Drescher, known best for her role in the sitcom “The Nanny,” is also becoming known for her advocacy efforts on behalf of gynecological cancer issues on Capitol Hill. Drescher, who was misdiagnosed several times before finding out she had uterine cancer, recently met with Friends Founder and Chair Ellen Sigal to discuss issues relating to prevention and early detection of cancer. Fortunately, Drescher’s cancer was caught early enough at stage one that she avoided chemotherapy and radiation and has now been given a clean-bill of health. Drescher felt compelled to make sure others were given the same opportunity, and after writing a book about her experiences titled “Cancer Schmancer ,” she is starting to form a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization that will focus on lobbying Congress about gynecological cancer issues. Most recently, Fran worked to gain bi-partisan support to pass Johanna’s Law, which aims to create a federal campaign of gynecologic cancer education designed to improve early detection. President Bush signed the act into law this past month.
Friends Executive Committee and Board Member, Sherry Lansing, will be honored with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the upcoming 79th Academy Awards on February 25, 2007. Friends of Cancer Research will be sending out a special tribute email highlighting Sherry's contributions to Friends and the cancer community as the event draws near.
Friends of Cancer Research Full staff directory: www.focr.org/move.html
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