I have trying to follow and understand recent news about the
appropriations bills that determine NIH money, and the situation is
unclear. Several issues have been holding up the Labor-HHS bills
in both houses, as a result of which there are not so far enough
votes to pass either version in its present form. The issues
include:
a provision requiring parental notification for teens receiving
contraceptives from federally financed family planning programs;
a Foreign Operations measure;
whether to designate certain appropriations as emergency to get
around their exceeding legally mandated spending limits ("caps");
whether and where to make cuts to offset excesses;
whether to combine emergency spending provisions with a tax cut;
whether to combine several appropriations bills, including Labor-HHS
and a tax cut, into one omnibus bill, as a way around the above
difficulties;
whether to consider extending current fiscal year funding until
Oct. 9 in order to give appropriators enough time to complete their
work.
The possibility of making deals at a gross level in order to pass
the legislation confirms the need to write our legislators asking
them to oppose amendments which would reduce NIH appropriations
amounts.
Phil Tompkins
Hoboken NJ
60/9
