House and Senate Approve Differing Budget Resolutions

On Thursday, March 17, 2005, the House of Representatives (H. Con. Res. 95) and Senate (S. Con. Res. 18) each voted on distinct fiscal year (FY) 2006 budget resolutions that emphasize different priorities—the House approved a plan that adheres to strict fiscal responsibility, offers few increases in discretionary spending, and calls for cuts to Medicaid and other mandatory spending programs; on the other hand, the Senate agreed on a plan that added funds for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and higher education programs and restored proposed cuts to Medicaid. The purpose of the federal budget resolution is to set priorities and allocations for the appropriations process.

NIH Funding
For NIH, the House approved spending $28.845 billion in FY 2006, a $196 million or 0.7 percent increase over last year and the same level President George W. Bush offered in his FY 2006 Budget proposal.

In the Senate, an amendment sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA)—Chair of the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee—was approved by a vote of 63-37 and added $1.5 billion to NIH’s proposed budget and $500 million for education programs. The additional NIH and education funding would be offset by a reduction in an administrative spending account. With the Specter amendment, the Senate approved NIH funding of $29.9 billion in FY 2006, a $1.5 billion or 5.2 percent increase over FY 2005.

As the Chair of the Senate Subcommittee with jurisdiction over the NIH budget, Senator Specter characterized the $28.8 billion budget request from the Bush Administration as “totally, totally insufficient,” and would fail to take into account biomedical research inflation for FY 2006. “When you have biomedical research inflation up 3.5 percent on $28 billion, what you really have is a cut of $980 million, almost a billion dollars,” observed Senator Specter during Senate floor debate on the Budget resolution.

For FY 2006, ASH is supporting the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research Funding recommendation of an NIH budget of at least $30 billion, a 6 percent increase over last year’s level.

Medicaid
The House’s plan instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee to cut $20 billion over five years in programs—with Medicaid the likely target—under its jurisdiction. A similar measure was voted down in the Senate when Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) discouraged his colleagues from placing “budget ahead of policy.”

Outlook
The House and Senate have divergent budget priorities and will have to reconcile the differences in their budget plans when they return from a two-week recess in early April. Although an FY 2006 NIH funding increase received a significant boost from Senator Specter’s amendment, it will still be an uphill battle to achieve appropriations increases for NIH.

ASH will continue to advocate for NIH funding and will keep members apprised of new developments.

If you have questions, or need more information, please contact ASH Government Affairs Manager Jeff Coughlin at (202) 292-0256.