Skip to content

House Committee Moves Forward with Labor-H

The House Appropriations subcommittee marked up the FY 2017 Labor-H appropriations measure today. The legislation includes funding for programs within the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and other related agencies. No report language has been released, so details of the bill will likely remain unclear until full committee consideration next week.

Full committee markup of the bill is scheduled for Wednesday, July 13, at 10:00 a.m. EDT in 2359 Rayburn House Office Building.

The measure would increase funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to $33.3 billion, an increase of $1.25 billion above the FY16 level, but does not include the Senate bill’s funding to restore the year-round Pell Grant. The bill includes a provision to prohibit the Department of Labor from implementing its new overtime rule.

Highlights of accounts of note include:

NIH 

The $33.3 billion in NIH funding includes $165 million for the National Children’s Study, $511.5 million for Clinical and Translational Sciences Awards, and $333.3 million for Institutional Development Awards (IDeA) programs. Other details include:

  • $1.26 billion, a $350 million increase, for the Alzheimer’s disease research initiative;
  • $195 million, a $45 million increase, for the Brain Research through Application of Innovative Neuro-technologies (BRAIN) initiative; and
  • $300 million for the Precision Medicine Initiative.

The bill also maintains the salary cap on external NIH grants at Executive Level II of the Federal Executive pay scale.

Higher Education

The Pell Grant maximum award would be increased to $5,935 through a combination of discretionary and mandatory funds, which is the same as the Administration’s request and the Senate bill. The bill also would prohibit the Department of Education from moving ahead on regulations on teacher preparation, defining “gainful employment” and “credit hour,” and how states license institutions of higher education.

The Senate committee-passed bill funds NIH at $34 billion, a $2 billion increase, and uses part of the Pell Grant program surplus to restore the year-round Pell Grant.

Federal Relations will continue to update as we learn more details.