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Category: Health/Medical

Additional Details from Labor-HHS/ Defense Conference Report Available

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Additional details from the conference report for the Labor-HHS/ Defense package that will be considered by both chambers in the near future are provided below.

As noted before, NIH would receive $39.1 billion, an increase of $2 billion.  The new funding level would include $711 million designated for the agency from the 21st Century Cures Act.  Within the $39.1 billion, the conference report calls for the following:

  • $2.34 billion for Alzheimer’s disease reserach
  • an increase of $86 million for the Precision Medicine Initiative
  • an increase of $29 million for the BRAIN Initiative
  • a $100-million increase for the Cancer Moonshot

Of the $711 million for the NIH that would come from the 21st Century Cures Act:

  • $400 million would be for the National Cancer Institute
  • National Institute of Mental Health and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke would each receive $57.5 million
  • $186 million would be dedicated to the Precision Medicine Initiative
  • $10 million for regenerative medicine

Under the conference agreement, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would receive $7.95 billion and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is slated to receive $334.0 million.

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health would receive $336.3 million and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency would be funded at $5.47 billion under this bill.

Within the Department of Education, the Institute for Education Sciences would receive $615.5 million in FY2019, an increase of $2 million over the current level.

 

 

Agreement Reached on Labor-Health-Education and Defense Package

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House and Senate conferees yesterday officially agreed to a massive spending package for FY2019 that combines the two biggest annual appropriations bills, the Labor-HHS-Education and Defense measures.  The explanatory statement for the conference report is available here.  The text of the conference report is also available on-line here.

The Senate could take up the $855-billion package, which represents approximately 65 percent of all discretionary spending for FY2019, next week with the House following suit the following week.  The current plan is to add a short-term continuing resolution to this bill that would fund other agencies and programs whose spending bills haven’t been passed by the October 1 deadline through December 7.

Here are some of the details with respect to the Labor-HHS-Education component of the bill:

Biomedical and health

  • National Institutes of Health (NIH):  $39.1 billion, an increase of $2 billion over current level
  • Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA):  $7.16 billion, an increase of $146.8 million
  • Nursing programs:  level-funded at $249.5 million

Student aid and higher education

  • Pell Grant:  maximum grant of $6,195 ($100 increase)
  • Title VI international programs:  level-funded at $72.6 million
  • Federal Work-Study:  level-funded at $1.13 billion
  • SEOG:  level-funded at $840 million
  • TRIO:  $1.06 billion, an increase of $50 million
  • GEAR UP:  $360 million, an increase of $10 million

A summary of the Labor-HHS-Education part of the agreement is available here.

Office of Federal Relations will provide additional details, including those about the defense part of the bill, throughout the day.

First Spending Bills to be Cleared by Friday?

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The conference report for the package that contains the first three appropriations bills of FY2019– Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs– was quickly adopted by the Senate yesterday by a vote of 92 to 5.  An agreement between the House and Senate negotiators was reached on it earlier this week.

The House is scheduled to take up the measure later today and is expected to clear it by Friday, clearing it for the President’s signature.  As noted above, these three bills, if signed into law, would represent the first spending bills approved for FY2019, which starts on Oct 1.

On a related note, House and Senate conferees are scheduled to formally meet today on two other sets of spending bills.  The first combines the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education and Defense bills and second pulls together the Interior, Agriculture, Transportation-Housing, and Financial Services bills.

Senate Agrees to Domestic-Defense Appropriations Package

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As expected, the Senate adopted last Thursday an appropriations package made up of the two largest spending bills, the Labor-HHS-Education and Defense measures.  The Senate approved the $856.9-billion package by a vote of 85 to 7.  While the House cleared its version of the Defense bill, it has yet to move on Labor-HHS.

Among other items, the Senate bill would fund the NIH at $39.1 billion in FY2019, an increase of $2 billion over the FY2018 level.  During the floor debate, several amendments of interest were adopted, including:

  • An amendment from Roy Blunt (R-MO), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) that would transfer $5 million from the NIH Office of the Director to the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services “for oversight of grant programs and operations of the National Institutes of Health, including agency efforts to ensure the integrity of its grant application evaluation and selection processes.”
  • A Blunt-Murray amendment authorizing the Department of Education to allow institutions of higher education to service outstanding Federal Perkins Loans.

Labor-HHS Spending Bill Clears House Committee

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After an all-day markup, the FY2019 House Labor-HHS-Education bill was cleared by the Appropriations Committee last night. The committee’s adoption of the bill means that 11 of the 12 spending bills have cleared the House Appropriations Committee; the Senate committee has cleared all of its bills.

The 13-hour markup was contentious at times, with heated debates on a number of issues, including child separation.  Of the roughly 50 amendments offered and debated during the session, a significant number of them focused on child separation practices at the border.

Although the bill has now cleared the committee process, it is unclear at this point whether it will see floor action in the near future.

A copy of the bill is available here and the accompanying report is available here.