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News and updates

News and updates

FY10 Budget Resolution Finished

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**UPDATE: The FY10 Budget Resolution conference agreement has been approved by the House and Senate**

House and Senate conferees have reached an agreement on an FY10 Budget Resolution. A budget resolution is a non-binding budget blueprint, which does not require the President’s signature. The legislation calls for $1.096 trillion in non-emergency discretionary spending in FY10, only $10 billion or 1% less than President Obama’s initial request -as captured in a budget blueprint from the administration in February. President Obama is expected to release a full budget request in early May.

The most contested provision of the FY10 Budget Resolution would permit the use of the fast-track budget reconciliartion process for health insurance and student loan reform legislation. The budget reconciliation process is being labeled as a last resort, and would allow for the movement of legislation with a simple majority -avoiding the threat of a filibuster by the minority.

Final votes on the budget resolution are expected on Wednesday April 29th.

Budget Resolution Documents

Conflict of Interest Rules Proposed for Medical Research

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A recent report from the Institute of Medicine recommends that researchers and medical faculty members decline all gifts from medical companies and refuse to publish or present material that is ghostwritten for such companies in order to avoid real or perceive conflicts of interest.   The recommendations also suggest broader reporting requirements of researchers’ ties to companies, but does not go so far as to recommend barring all such ties.  Instead, the report suggests that researchers should disclose ties not only to their employers but to other medical organizations. 

Read more about the Institute for Medicine report.

Senate Confirms HHS Chief

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Today, the United States Senate confirmed Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services on a 65-31 vote. The confirmation comes at a critical moment, as the Obama administration deals with swine flu emergency that has surfaced in the past week. The confirmation completes President Obama’s cabinet and adds a voice to the administration that will be critical in dealing with an anticipated reform of the nation’s health insurance system. 

TheSenate Finance Committee, chaired by Max Baucus (D-MT), could begin to hold mark-ups of health insurance reform legislation as early as June of this year, with full consideration by the Senate this fall. The inclusion of budget reconciliation language, on health insurance reform and student loan reform, in the FY10 budget resolution that is emerging from Congress could mean that health insurance reform would need only a simple majority to pass, and would not be threatened by a filibuster led by the minority party. However, the White House and Congressional leaders have expressed a desire to pass health insurance reform in a bi-partisan fashion.

Senator Specter Switches Parties

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Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) announced today that he is switching parties and will run for re-election as a Democrat in 2010, drastically altering the balance of power in the Senate.  Specter has been a Republican for more than 40 years. His switch would make him the Democrats’ 60th vote in the Senate if Democrat Al Franken is seated (Franken is still in the midst of a legal recount battle in Minnesota).  Specter’s switch comes as he faced an increasingly unfavorable electoral environment in Pennsylvania.

Senator Specter is currently the Ranking Member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, and has long been an advocate for increased funding for health research through NIH.  It is unclear at this point how his switch will affect his committee assignments but he is sure to have an even larger role in determining funding levels for federal health and education programs.

Read Senator Specter’s statement here.

IES Research Funding Opportunities

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The National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) and the National Center for Education Research (NCER) within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) will host a series of webinars related to research funding opportunities in May.  Six types of webinars are planned.

Click here for more information about the upcoming webinars.
Click here to view slides from past webinar sessions.