With just a day left until government funding would run out, Congress passed another temporary spending bill, but left final fiscal year (FY) 2018 funding decisions in limbo.
After days of wrangling votes and changing plans, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed a continuing resolution that will fund the government through January 19, provide funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program and community health centers through March 31, and appropriate $2.1 billion for a private care access program for veterans.
The measure (HR 1370) will also provide temporary partial funding for the Special Diabetes Program (SDP). Funding for SDP has been a top priority of the Endocrine Society. While we are pleased Congress renewed the program, we will continue to advocate for full funding of $300 million for a two-year period. Under the resolution, the SDP Type 1 Research program and the SDPI program for American Indians and Alaskan Natives will receive $37,500,000 each for the first half of FY 2018. At this time, it is unclear how the research funds will be dispersed, and the status of funding opportunity announcements is not resolved. Researchers funded through SDP are encouraged to contact their program officer for further details. All members concerned about SDP are strongly encouraged to join the Society’s online advocacy campaign.
While Congress was able to avert a shutdown, congressional leaders and the White House still need to negotiate new FY 2018 spending levels to avoid a reduction in discretionary spending, known as “sequestration,” required under the Budget Control Act of 2011. Negotiations have been taking place for several weeks, but parties have yet to reach a final agreement. Without those numbers, the Appropriations Committee cannot write its 12 spending bills and the government must either operate under a temporary spending bill or shut down. We also encourage all US members of the Society to join our campaign urging Congress to raise the budget caps so it can provide final FY 2018 funding, including an increase for the NIH.
The next shutdown showdown will be January 19. In the meantime, we will continue to advocate for funding for programs of importance to the membership. All members of Congress need to hear from their constituents about these issues now. We hope you will help us by joining our advocacy campaigns over Christmas. This will not take a lot of your time, but will help to make a difference!
In the end, concerns about the deficit and Democrats’ concerns about punting numerous legislative issues into next year were not enough to prevent the spending bill from passing Congress.
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