On June 9, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year (FY) 2017 Labor, Health and Human Services (LHHS) Appropriations bill by a vote of 29-1 (James Lankford [R-OK] was the only “no” vote). The bill provides a $2 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), bringing the agency’s budget to $34.1 billion in FY 2017.
This is a major victory that came about because we advocated for an NIH funding increase. We visited many congressional offices, including during our Centennial Hill Day in April, submitted testimony, and wrote letters and emails to Congress.
All of the Senators who attended the mark-up offered strong praise for LHHS Subcommittee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-MO) and ranking member Patty Murray (D-WA) for producing a bipartisan bill despite the subcommittee receiving a lower total allocation than last year. Several committee members, including Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Susan Collins (R-ME) mentioned the significant increase for NIH as a highlight of the bill.
The Senate bill would mark the second year in a row that the NIH receives a $2 billion funding boost. Last year, the agency received its largest budget increase in 12 years. However, the outlook for NIH funding is not certain. We do not yet know if Senate leadership will bring the Appropriations Committee-approved LHHS bill to the Senate floor for a final vote. The House L-HHS Appropriations subcommittee is expected to vote on its version of the funding bill before July 4 but with limited legislative days left in the congressional session before the elections, many expect the Congress will be unable to complete action on funding bills and will instead resort to passing a Continuing Resolution that funds the government at this year’s levels.
The funding bill is accompanied by a report in which the Appropriations Committee directs the federal agencies to do certain things. This year we recommended report language in three areas that were accepted and included in the Senate report. This included: encouraging Medicare to modernize its policies to cover continuous glucose monitors; urging Medicare to improve outpatient evaluation and management work performed by cognitive physicians; and calling on NIH to implement the recommendations of the Physician-Scientist Workforce Working Group. Report language does not have the weight of statute, but it does set specific policy directions and holds the agencies accountable. This language will help support our advocacy regarding Medicare coverage, Medicare physician payment, and workforce issues.
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