Late yesterday, the White House issued a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) in support of the 21st Century Cures legislation, which is on the House Floor today.
The SAP expressly calls out the Innovation Fund in the measure, which targets funding for several of the Administration’s health care priorities, as a highlight of the measure.
Senate Appropriations Labor-HHS subcommittee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-MO) has said today that the CR will not include the $2b bump to NIH that was included in the Senate bill. The CR, in whatever duration, should contain level funding of $32.084b or FY 2016 levels. There has been a research and health community effort to increase funding for NIH as an anomaly to the CR, but Blunt said today that it will not happen.
While this does not mean that an ultimate increase to NIH will not happen in a final FY 2017 package, it will not happen in the stopgap spending measure.
Additionally, there is now tension between the House and Senate as to when to end the CR. House is looking towards a March ending and the Senate wants a May date.
Senate Republicans are now pushing for the Fy 2017 stop-gap continuing resolution to go through May 2017. The House, particularly House conservatives, have long advocated for a March 2017 date. The White House continues to push for a CR that is as short as possible to ensure the Pentagon gets the budget assurance it needs for ongoing conflicts.
Additionally, the White House sent an $11.6 b request for additional funding to combat ISIL at the beginning of November.
The text of the CR is not expected to be unveiled until next week as House and Senate leadership continue to work though these issues.
President-elect Trump posted a 2 minute 37 second video on You Tube, which is the first time he’s addressed the American people directly since the election.
Mr. Trump’s video included six calls for action on trade, immigration, energy, regulatory curbs, national security (specifically cyber infrastructure), and lobbying ethics changes, most of which have already been announced either during the campaign or the transition period.
Of note, Trump did not mention action on the Affordable Care Act, his proposed wall along the southern border, the tax code, or the Iran nuclear deal, all of which were central arguments for his election.
See the video here or below.
House and Senate Leadership have decided to forego the Omnibus or minibus appropriations for FY 2017 and pass a short-term CR. The CR will last until March 31, 2017. The CR will be crafted to maintain the current rate of funding.
More details will be reported when more is known.