To: GRRs
Appropriators released the FY 2014 omnibus spending bill late Monday evening. The package includes all 12 FY 2014 spending bills.
The omnibus provides $29.926 billion for NIH in FY 2014. This is a $1 billion (3.5 percent) increase over the FY 2013 budget after sequestration and transfers, but is $714 million below the FY 2013 pre-sequestration appropriation, which was $30.640 billion. [Note: All of these numbers refer to Labor-H budget authority (appropriation) and do not include funding from the Interior subcommittee for NIEHS or the mandatory diabetes research funding.]
The omnibus retains the salary cap at Executive Level II ($181,500 effective January 2014, up from $179,700).
The omnibus bill also rejects the President's FY 2014 budget recommendation to eliminate the Science Education and Partnership Awards (SEPA) program within the Office of the Director (OD) and consolidate it within the Education Department as part of a government wide reorganization of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education activities. The omnibus directs NIH to continue funding these programs in FY 2014 and notes “sufficient funding is provided within OD to include the Office of Science Education. The NIH shall continue these programs based on the same policies that existed at the start of fiscal year 2013.”
The House Appropriations Committee Republican summary states: “The bill includes $29.9 billion for the NIH, $1 billion above the fiscal year 2013 level. This funding will continue support for basic bio-medical research and translational research through the programs like the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) and Institutional Development Award (IDeA) to support scientists as they conduct research to discover cures. Further, it provides full support for the NIH Office of Science Education and programs like the Science Education and Partnership Awards (SEPA) to support bio-medical research for the future.” (http://appropriations.house.
The Senate Appropriations Committee Democratic summary states: “The bill includes a $1 billion increase to the NIH compared to fiscal year 2013 post-sequester. This amount should allow the NIH to continue all current research programs and begin approximately 385 additional research studies and trials.
“The agreement includes new funding for the Brain Research through Application of Innovative Neurotechnologies [BRAIN] Initiative, a multi-agency effort that also involves the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as well as several private sector partners. The BRAIN Initiative will help catalyze work to accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will help explain how the brain records, processes, uses, stores, and retrieves information.
“In addition, the bill includes sufficient funding for the proposed initiative to study new ways to prevent and cure Alzheimer’s disease. The total payments for healthcare, long-term care, and hospice for people with Alzheimer's and other dementias are projected to increase from $203 billion in 2013 to a staggering $1.2 trillion in 2050. Without a medical breakthrough to prevent, slow, or stop the disease, Medicare and Medicaid costs related to Alzheimer's could rise an estimated 500 percent. Research is desperately needed to bring those costs under control.” http://www.appropriations.
The complete text of the omnibus is at: http://docs.house.gov/
NIH is on pages 134-147 of the Joint Explanatory Statement: http://docs.house.gov/
We will provide a more detailed summary later in the week.
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David B. Moore Association of American Medical Colleges Washington, D.C. 20037 |
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