The House of Representatives Sept. 26 passed the fiscal year 2019 “minibus” funding bill, increasing the NIH appropriation by $2 billion to $39.1 billion—a 5.4 percent boost over the current level.
Of the proposed $2 billion, $190 million in new money would trickle down to NCI. The combined Defense, Labor-HHS appropriations package brings NCI’s budget to a total of $6.1 billion, including $400 million in Moonshot funding (The Cancer Letter, Sept. 21).
President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill before the end of the fiscal year.
With the completion of this package, Congress will have approved 75 percent of all annual discretionary funding prior to the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30—a critical step in returning to the regular federal funding process, and an achievement that has not occurred in over two decades. This is also the first time in over 20 years that Congress has passed a Labor-HHS bill prior to the end of the fiscal year, and the first time in over 10 years it has passed a Department Of Defense bill prior to the end of the fiscal year.
“This package also includes a short-term continuing resolution to keep the federal government open and operational until all 12 Appropriations bills can be signed into law,” House Appropriations Chairman, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), said in a statement. “This will avoid the threat of any government shutdown, and allow for time for work on the remaining funding bills to be completed.”
Passage of the measure before the end of the current fiscal year is noteworthy, and congressional leaders should be commended for their commitment to advancing the bill in a timely fashion, said Mary Woolley, president and CEO of Research!America.
“The $2 billion increase for NIH builds on the momentum to accelerate research into precision medicine, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and other health threats,” Woolley said in a statement. “Funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to support health services research is critical to addressing inefficiencies and waste in our health care system. The measure will also enable the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to step up efforts to combat antibiotic resistance, and the opioid epidemic through research, treatment and prevention.”
