Congress Finalizes FY 2009 Budget Resolution

June 6, 2008 – The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate gave final approval to the FY 2009 Budget Resolution (S. Con. Res. 70, H. Rept. 110-659) this week, finalizing the spending framework for the next fiscal year and allowing the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to begin working on spending bills for specific federal programs in earnest.

The annual Budget Resolution sets forth a budgetary blueprint which each Appropriations Subcommittee uses as guidelines in drafting their respective funding bills. Discretionary health programs including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that are funded via the "Function 550" portion of the Budget Resolution will receive $59.7 billion, which is $5.2 billion higher than President Bush's budget. ASH and the health community had advocated $58.556 billion for Function 550 in FY 2009.

The House approved the conference agreement for the FY 2009 budget resolution on June 5 by a vote of 214-210. The Senate approved the measure on June 4 by a vote of 48-45.

Now that the budget framework has been finalized, it is expected that the various House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees will, over the course of the next several weeks, begin the task of determining precise spending levels for federal programs and agencies such as NIH. ASH will continue its advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill during the FY 2009 appropriations debate and encourages all members to take action to support increased funding for NIH. Grassroots advocacy by researchers around the country will be necessary to ensure hematologic research is adequately funded at NIH.