2009-05-07

President Obama has released the details of his FY 2010 budget proposal, building upon the FY 2010 budget blueprint that he released at the end of February.

For FY 2010, President Obama has proposed approximately $31 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a 1.4 percent increase over the final FY 2009 funding levels that were enacted in March of this year. Below is a summary of the proposed budget numbers for Institutes of particular interest to ASH:

Proposed FY 2010 National Institutes of Health Funding
(dollars in millions)

The proposed budget also includes language maintaining President Obama’s commitment to doubling cancer research across NIH by FY 2017. The proposal emphasizes that “support of medical research through competitive, peer-reviewed and investigator-initiated research project grants (RPGs) represents 53 percent of the total NIH budget request” which, if enacted, will support an estimated “9,849 new and competing RPGs in FY 2010.”

The President’s proposal includes $6.38 billion in discretionary funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (which is managed as part of the CDC), an increase of $32 million above the FY 2009 level.

It is important to remember that the President's budget request is simply a starting point for the annual budget process. Congress has already passed its FY 2010 budget resolution, a nonbinding blueprint that provides a framework for tax and spending bills that can be acted on later in the year, and the congressional Appropriations Committees will soon begin the process of drafting their FY 2010 funding bills.

For FY 2010, ASH and the biomedical research community have recommended an increase for NIH of at least 7 percent over the FY 2009 funding level. This recommended increase would allow NIH funding to keep pace with a projected Biomedical Research and Development Price Index increase of over 3 percent and make up for lost purchasing power that resulted from inadequate and unpredictable funding over the past several years.

Now is the time to contact your Senators and Representative to generate their interest in supporting FY 2010 NIH funding. ASH will continue its advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill during the FY 2010 budget debate and encourages all members to visit the ASH Advocacy Center to take action to help influence the budget process and support increased funding for NIH. Your Senators and Representative need to hear from you about ensuring adequate NIH funding in FY 2010.

ASH will continue to keep its membership informed about each step in the debate toward the completion of the FY 2010 federal budget, with frequent updates posted on the Society's Web site. More detailed information about the President's FY 2010 Budget Request for the Department of Health and Human Services is also available online, as is a detailed summary of the proposed NIH budget.

If you have questions, please contact ASH Research Advocacy Manager Tracy Roades at 202-776-0544 or troades@hematology.org.

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