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House Unveils Zika Funding

Today, House Appropriations Committee released the House Republicans’ $622 million supplemental appropriations bill to fight Zika. The supplemental is expected to be considered by the House this week.

The bill is fully offset, according to a statement released by the Committee. It uses $352 million in “unobligated” money that was appropriated to address the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and $270 million in “unused administrative funding” from the Health and Human Services Department. Funds would be allocated for FY 2016, which means they could be used during the next five months. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) previously announced that the Committee intends to include Zika funding in the FY 2017 Labor-H bill. 

The proposal is likely to be derided by Democratic Members and the Administration, which have repeatedly called for $1.9 billion in emergency funding without offsets to research and combat the mosquito-borne virus.

 

More Senate Approps Movement (E&W, T-HUD, Mil-Con, Zika)

Today, the Senate has passed its first Energy & Water appropriations bill under regular order since 2009. The failure of Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) Iran amendment broke up the logjam for both the FY 2017 E&W and will allow the upper chamber to consider both the FY 2017 Transportation and HUD (T-HUD) and FY 2017 Military Construction-VA (Mil-Con) bills in one combination bill next week. 

The $37.5 billion FY 2017 Energy-Water bill moved into express mode after Senators reached a unanimous consent agreement to bypass procedural floor votes and waive cloture debate time.  The T-HUD and Mil-Con bills combined make up $139.5 billion in discretionary spending, about 13 percent of the total $1.07 trillion in discretionary funding made available for FY 2017 under last year’s bipartisan budget deal. However, don’t expect smooth sailing for the Senate consideration going forward. Last year’s T-HUD bill, endured efforts to restrict funding on Mid Eastern Refugee housing, similar to Senator Cotton’s amendment. Such amendments are known as  “poison pills”. 

Also today, Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) announced a bipartisan $1.1 billion Zika package. The White House has said that it wants $1.9 billion to fight the mosquito virus, which is spreading virulently and causing birth defects. The supplemental funding is expected to be added, via amendment, to the T-HUD, Mil-Con package considered next week. 

OSTP Internship

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is currently accepting applications for its Fall Policy Internship Program.  The application deadline is June 17, 2016.  Students who are U.S. citizens and who will be enrolled in, or have just graduated from, an academic program should feel free to apply.

More information and application instructions are available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/about/student.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy advises the President on the effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs. The office serves as a source of scientific and technological analysis and judgment for the President with respect to major policies, plans and programs of the Federal Government.

Interns are accepted for one of three annual terms (Spring, Summer, or Fall), which each last no more than 90 days. The assignments provide educational enrichment, practical work experience, and networking opportunities with other individuals in the science and technology policy arena.

GAO Calls for Better Health Care Workforce Plan

The Secretary of Health and Human Services should develop a comprehensive and coordinated planning approach to guide the department’s health care workforce development programs, according to a report released this week by the Government Accountability Office. “Without a comprehensive and coordinated approach to program planning, HHS cannot fully identify the gaps between existing programs and national needs, identify actions needed to address these gaps, or determine whether additional legislative proposals are needed to ensure that its programs fully meet workforce needs,” GAO said. In the report, HHS said it plans to convene an interagency group to assess existing workforce programs and the potential need for changes or expanded legislative authority. Leaders of the Senate Committees on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions,  Homeland Security, and Governmental Affairs asked GAO to study HHS’s activities to ensure that federal funding is aligned with the nation’s health care needs. The Affordable Care Act created the National Health Care Workforce Commission to annually recommend to Congress and the administration national health care workforce priorities, goals, and policies, but Congress has not allocated funding to the commission.

Congress Passes $1.8 Trillion FY 2016 Spending and Tax Extension Bill

This morning the House & Senate approved a $1.8 trillion fiscal year 2016 omnibus spending bill, averting a government shutdown and funding the federal establishment through September 2016. The measure passed with a 316-113 vote in the House followed by a 65-33 vote in the Senate. President Obama is said to sign the measure into law imminently. We encourage you to review our FY2016 Omnibus Analysis. Please let Christy Gullion, UW Director of Federal Relations (cgullion@uw.edu), or Sarah Castro, UW Associate Director of Federal Relations (smcastro@uw.edu), know if you have questions.

 

As noted in a previous post, highlights of the bill include:

  • The National Institutes of Health received $32 billion, $2 billion above current levels.
  • The National Science Foundation is funded at $7.5 billion, an increase of $119 million, and directorates such as Social and Behavioral Sciences were funded at FY 2015 levels.
  • NASA is funded at $19.3 billion, an increase of $1.3 billion above the fiscal year 2015 enacted level to advance America’s leadership in space and science. Within this total, $4 billion is provided for Exploration, including funding to keep the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Space Launch System on schedule, and $5.6 billion is provided for science programs.
  • Defense research was funded at $69.8 billion for research, development, testing, and evaluation of new defense technologies, which was minor increases.
  • The maximum Pell Grant award is increased to $5,915.
  • Title VI International Education programs were held at FY 2015 levels.
  • NOAA received $5.8 billion, which is $325 million above the fiscal year 2015 enacted level. Funding was included for the National Weather Service to provide critical weather information to the public, and investments in new and existing weather satellites that are essential to maintain and improve weather forecasts, including the Polar Follow On program.
  • Maximum Pell Grant award to $5,915, funded by a combination of discretionary and mandatory funds.

 

In addition to omnibus appropriations, the bill includes a $680 million tax package, which makes permanent several tax provisions that were previously subject to extensions including the research and experimentation tax credit and several charitable donation tax breaks. More information on this can be found here.