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Category: Health/Medical

With 11 Days To Go…

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Remember the two-year spending agreement that was reached earlier this summer that increased the budget caps for both FY2020 and FY2021? Well, that seems like a distant memory at this point.  When the agreement was reached, there were hopes that the FY2020 appropriations process would turn into a relatively smooth one.  Fast forward to today and we are now 11 days away from the start of FY2020 and none of the 12 spending bills have been signed into law.

To try to prevent another shutdown like the one that marked the beginning of FY2019, the House took up and passed yesterday a continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the government funded through November 21.  The Senate is expected to take it up next week.  There was even uncertainty about the fate of the CR, with the biggest holdup being House Democratic appropriations leadership’s misgivings about adding funds for subsidies to farmers impacted by the tariff fight with China.  Ultimately, enough of the concerns were addressed for floor action and passage.

In the Senate, with the hopes of a quick appropriations process dashed, appropriators are making progress where they can.  The full Appropriations Committee cleared three bills yesterday in a bipartisan manner:  Agriculture, Transportation-Housing, and Financial Services- General Government.  However, significant hurdles remain.  There still are differences between the two sides about the Administration’s attempts to move funds from other bills to build a wall on the Southern border.  Related to the wall push is the Democrats’ unhappiness about the “302(b)” allocations to the subcommittees, especially to the Labor-HHS subcommittee for its bill.  While the Labor-HHS-Education bill and the accompanying report have finally been released, the legislation has not yet moved due to Democratic objections on funding and Republican protests related to abortion policy.

The current version of the Senate Labor-HHS-Education bill would increase funding for NIH by $3 billion.  In addition, while the legislation would increase the Pell Grant maximum to $6,330, it would level fund the majority of the other student financial aid and higher education programs of most interest, including:

  • SEOG:  $840 million
  • Federal Work Study:  $1.1 billion
  • TRIO:  $1.06 billion
  • GEAR-UP:  $360 million
  • GAANN:  $23 million
  • Institute for Education Sciences (IES):  $615 million
  • Title VI International Education programs:  $72 million

The bill would also provide $100 million to federal student loan borrowers who would otherwise be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program except for the fact that they unknowingly made payments to ineligible repayment plans.  This amount would be combined with unobligated balances for similar efforts from prior years.

Stay tuned for further updates.

President’s FY2020 Budget

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Today, the Administration released its FY 2020 President’s budget request (PBR) to Congress. This budget is the first step in the annual Congressional appropriations cycle. The annual PBR is a political and policy document indicative of the goals of the  Administration for the coming year.

The $4.7 trillion FY 2020 budget released today would sharply reduce spending on safety-net programs, while effectively exempting the Pentagon from strict spending caps set to take effect in FY 2020.

The PBR assumes the scheduled FY 2020 and 2021 sequester cuts to domestic spending, which is effectively a 10 percent reduction to nondefense programs from current levels. The budget would reduce the overall level of nondefense spending by nearly $30 billion reduction and would increase military spending by 5 percent, to $750 billion from $716 billion received in FY 2019. It requests $8.6 billion for new barriers along the southern U.S. border, including $5 billion for the Department of Homeland Security and $3.6 billion for the Defense Department’s military-construction budget. The president’s blueprint would also provide additional funding to boost manpower at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, and it proposes policy changes to end so-called sanctuary cities.

The Administration’s budget proposed $2.7 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade of which $1.9 trillion is cuts to mandatory spending programs.  Specifically within those programs, the Administration proposes to cut $22 billion from safety-net programs next year—$327 billion over the next decade—and proposes new work requirements for recipients of food stamps, Medicaid, and federal housing programs.

Within the discretionary nondefense side of the ledger, cuts were proposed to:

  • $87.1 billion for HHS (a 12 percent cut)
  • $34.36 billion for NIH (a 12 percent or $4.9 billion cut)
  • $5.8 billion for HRSA (a $1 billion cut)
  • $5.27 billion for CDC (a $1.2 billion cut)
  • $31.7 billion for Energy, (an 11 percent cut) and requests $5.5 billion for Office of Science (a 9 percent decrease) while eliminating Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)
  • $62.0 billion for ED (an $8.5 billion or 12 percent cut) and eliminating, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants
  • $12.2 billion for Commerce (a $1.0 billion or a 9.3-percent increase), but eliminations to the  Sea Grant, Coastal Zone Management Grants, and the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund.
  • $12.5 billion for Interior (a 14 percent cut)
  • $7.1 billion for NSF (a 9 percent cut)
  • $21 billion for NASA (a 1.4 percent increase)

The budget specifics for HHS, ED, Energy, DOD, Interior, NOAA, and NASA should be forthcoming this week.

Other items included in the budget, the PBR proposes to streamline student loan repayment by consolidating multiple IDR plans into a single plan. The Single IDR plan would cap a borrower’s monthly payment at 12.5 percent of discretionary income. For undergraduate borrowers, any balance remaining after 180 months of repayment would be forgiven. For borrowers with any graduate debt, any balance remaining after 30 years of repayment would be forgiven.  It would expand Pell Grant eligibility to include high-quality short-term programs. The budget proposes to restructure and streamline the TRIO and GEAR UP programs by consolidating them into a $950 million State formula grant.

NIH would continue to address the opioid epidemic, make progress on developing a universal flu vaccine, and support the next generation of researchers. The PBR includes a new, dedicated effort to support research and develop new treatments for childhood cancer. Cancer is the leading cause of death from disease among children and adolescents in the United States. The basic biology of childhood cancers is not fully understood and differs from that of adult cancers. The Budget includes increased funding and an innovative initiative to enable the Nation’s best researchers and doctors to learn from every child with cancer, providing the opportunity to comprehend finally the unique causes and the best cures for childhood cancer.

 

 

UW Physician Testifies in Senate HELP Committee

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Today, Dr. Katherine Bennett testified in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions at the invitation of Senator Patty Murray. The hearing, titled “How Primary Care Affects Health Care Costs and Outcomes,” can be viewed on the HELP committee’s website here.

HELP Primary Care Costs Hearing

But Will He Sign It?

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Following the Senate’s lead from last week, the House cleared yesterday the massive spending package that combines the annual Labor-HHS-Education and Defense spending bills by a vote of 361-61.  The Senate approved it by a vote of 93 to 7.  The bill also includes a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund through December 7 the other agencies and programs whose funding bills are not signed into law by next Monday.

Earlier this week, there had been some uncertainty about whether the president would actually sign the package because it did not contain the funding his wants for a border wall along the Southern border.  It now appears that he will indeed sign it.

The CR could now apply to a larger number of bills– seven– than originally hoped for.  House and Senate negotiators have spent the last several weeks trying to reach a compromise on a combined package of four more appropriations measures and it remains uncertain at this point whether an agreement can be reached and signed into law before the House recesses on Friday.  Among the bills under discussion are those that would fund the departments of Interior and Agriculture.

Senate Approves Labor-HHS/Defense/CR Package

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By a vote of 93 to 7, the Senate adopted earlier today a massive spending package that includes the Labor-HHS-Education and Defense appropriations bills as well as the continuing resolution that would keep funded through December 7 parts of the government that do not have their spending bills approved by October 1.

The measure now heads to the House for its consideration.  The chamber is currently in recess and will return next week.