What's New
House and Senate Appropriations Committees Approve FY 2016 Spending Bills
For the first time in six years, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have passed bills appropriating funds for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. The fiscal year 2016 spending bills are each $3.6 billion below last year’s enacted bill and $14.5 billion below the President’s request. During the committee mark-ups appropriators of both parties called for a new budget deal that lifts the current budget spending caps. The full House is expected to consider the bill later this summer. The Senate is unlikely to bring the bill to the floor. Eventually, a conference committee will try to reconcile the two bills, with or without a new spending agreement.
Attached is a table detailing the status of ASPPH’s advocacy priorities.
Details:
National Institutes of Health
FY 2016 House $31.184B (+$1.1B)
FY 2016 Senate $32.184B (+$2.1B)
FY 2016 Request $31.084B (+$1B)
FY 2015 Enacted $30.084B
House Highlights:
- $481M (+$11M) for the Clinical and Translational Sciences Awards
- $461M (+$100M) for antibiotic resistance
- $200M (full Administration request) for the Precision Medicine Initiative
- Mandates that new and competing awards that generate large volumes of data from human research participants must obtain a “certificate of confidentiality”.
- Office of Disease Prevention funding not stated.
Senate Highlights:
- $499.7M (+$25M) for the Clinical and Translational Sciences Awards
- $461M (+$100M) for antibiotic resistance
- $200M (full Administration request) for the Precision Medicine Initiative
- $50M for extramural facilities
- Office of Disease Prevention funding not stated.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
FY 2016 House $7.065B (+$128M)
FY 2016 Senate $6.820B (-$245M)
FY 2016 Request $7.065B (+$128M)
FY 2015 Enacted $6.925B
House Highlights:
- $914M of the appropriated amount comes from the Prevention and Public Health Fund
- $70M (+$50M) for combating prescription drug abuse
- Prevention Research Centers: $24M (-$1.46M) The report asks the Government Accountability Office to review the Special Interest Projects. The Committee said “it remains concerned that SIP funds made available through Prevention Research Centers are not being competed from all qualified entities.”
- Academic Centers for Public Health Preparedness: $8.2M (+$0.02M)
- NIOSH Education and Research Centers: $28.5M (+$1.05M)
- NIOSH Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing: $27M (+$3M)
Senate Highlights:
- $883M of the appropriated amount comes from the Prevention and Public Health Fund
- Prevention Research Centers: $25.461M (same)
- Academic Centers for Public Health Preparedness: not funded
- NIOSH Education and Research Centers: $27.445M (same)
- NIOSH Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing: not funded
Health Resources Services Administration
FY 2016 House $6.049B (-$299M)
FY 2016 Senate summary chart not yet available
FY 2016 Request $6.462B (+$115M)
FY 2015 Enacted $6.347B
House Highlights:
- Public Health Training Centers and Public Health Traineeships: The report says that $10M has been provided for Public Health Workforce Development but is silent on which programs are to be funded. Four programs have traditionally been funded through this line, Public Health Training Centers, Public Health Traineeships, Preventive Medicine Training Centers, and the Integrative Medicine Program.
Senate Highlights:
- Public Health Training Centers: $5M (-$4.9M) The bill approved by the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee provided $10 million for the PHTCs. At full committee mark-up, Senator Mark Udall (D-NM) offered an amendment to reduce the amount to $5 million and to provide $5 million for preventive medicine residency programs. The amendment was accepted.
- Public Health Traineeships: No funds were provided.
Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research
FY 2016 House $0 (-$363M)
FY 2016 Senate $236M (-$128M)
FY 2016 Request $363M (same)
FY 2015 Enacted $363M
House Highlights:
- Bill would transfer the Prevention Public Health Task Force to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health.
Senate Highlights:
- Committee urges AHRQ to maintain a strong training and career development pipeline for talented researchers.
Other Items of Interest
House Highlights:
- Prohibits funds from being used for patient-centered outcomes research.
- Sets the Salary Cap at Executive Level III (currently $163,700) rather than at the current Executive Level II (currently $183,300).
- Would rescind $6.8B from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) within CMS.
- Would maintain a prohibition on using federal funds for exchange needle purchases, but allow at risk communities to use federal funds for related program activities.
- Expressed concern about agency administrative overhead and mandated that in next year’s budget justification that agencies specify the amount and percentage of administrative and overhead costs by each budget line item.
- Encourages the Office of Human Research Protections to work with other agencies “to adopt an exception to the Common Rule for situations where individuals or entities are collecting identifiable patient information, but are not engaged in direct human subject intervention and interaction and are following all the applicable requirements of the HIPPA regulations…”
Senate Highlights:
- Maintains the Salary Cap at Executive Level II (currently $183,300).
- Would maintain a prohibition on using federal funds for exchange needle purchases, but allow at risk communities to use federal funds for related program activities.
Links to Key Source Documents
