Government
House panel's HHS budget would bump up NIH funding
■ The fiscal 2010 plan would maintain or expand health agencies' funding beyond President Obama's requests.
By Doug Trapp — Posted July 29, 2009
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Washington -- A fiscal 2010 spending bill adopted by a key House panel would increase funding significantly over 2009 levels for both the National Institutes of Health and the training of health care professionals.
The Dept. of Health and Human Services spending measure also would maintain or slightly increase funding for a few other portions of the department's budget, including community health centers and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The House Appropriations Committee approved its version of the fiscal 2010 spending plan by voice vote on July 17.
Mark O. Lively, PhD, president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, praised committee leaders for increasing NIH spending without tying the increase to research on specific diseases. The panel's leaders recognized "that the best way to foster the breakthrough discoveries that lead to treatments and medical advancements is to ensure a broad investment in the highest-quality science," he said.
But Rep. Jerry Lewis (Calif.), the highest-ranking Republican on the Appropriations panel, said the spending measure relies too much on government programs. "American families are already bearing the brunt of this recession, and piling on more taxes and more government without improving the cost or quality of our health care system will only serve to make a bad situation worse."
Democrats on the committee easily defeated amendments offered by Republicans that would have eliminated funding for any government-run health insurance plan or for enforcing any mandate on employers to provide health insurance coverage to their workers. The Senate Appropriations Committee has not yet acted on a fiscal 2010 HHS spending bill.
The total amount the House panel approved for NIH funding was $31.3 billion, higher than Obama's 2010 request of $30.5 billion. The NIH spending level for 2009 is $30.3 billion.
On health professions training, the committee also increased Obama's $528 million request to $530 million. Spending for 2009 is $393 million.
