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Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 08:17:33 -0400 (EDT)
From: [log in to unmask] (Nita Anres)
Subject: Washington Fax story
To: [log in to unmask]
Message-id: <[log in to unmask]>

Below is the text of a Washington Fax news story. It has been forwarded to you by
Nita Anres ([log in to unmask]) on Tuesday, October 19, 1999 at 08:17:23
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WASHINGTON FAX   October 19, 1999


House Leadership hopes to get the L/HHS bill to the president by Thursday--A $2.3 billion increase for NIH may be in the offing




A select group of lawmakers from the House and Senate were huddled in private Monday discussing a compromise spending bill hammered out over the weekend that had the National Institutes of Health (NIH) penciled in for a $2.3 billion increase for FY 2000.

Sources said that figure--which is $300 million more than what was approved by the Senate in its version of the bill and almost $1 billion above what the House Appropriations Committee provided in its version--could come down. Holding on to the increase, they said, will depend how much money lawmakers ultimately provide for the troubled Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (L/HHS) FY 2000 funding measure, which includes the NIH appropriation.

The L/HHS bill has been hamstrung both by caps on federal spending and by a deliberate decision earlier in the appropriations process to redistribute some of the L/HHS subcommittee's allotted money to other, less controversial appropriations bills, so that they could be moved through Congress.

Late last week, in an acknowledgment of the difficulties facing the measure, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL, agreed to deviate from the normal process and let lawmakers from the House and Senate work out a compromise between the L/HHS bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee and the version produced by the Senate, rather than trying to move a "stand-alone" bill through the House and then on to be conferenced with the Senate version.

The Republican strategy is to send that compromise L/HHS bill to the president by attaching it to another appropriations bill. At a press conference Monday, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-TX, said Republicans "expect to get Labor, HHS to the President by Thursday."

"Obviously we need to expedite the process," he said.

The president has threatened to veto the House version of the measure because it doesn't contain enough money for certain educational initiatives.

Both congressional Republicans and the White House agreed that another short-term spending bill (termed a continuing resolution or CR) will be required before they reach a final agreement on FY 2000 spending. A CR approved by Congress several weeks ago expires Thursday.

Monday, the chairs and senior Democrats from the House and Senate L/HHS spending panels--Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA; Sen. Tom Harkin, D-IA; Rep. John Porter, R-IL, and Rep. David Obey, D-WI-- reportedly were meeting in private with the goal of reaching an agreement by Monday night on a compromise L/HHS bill.

Senate and House staff worked through the weekend to produce a draft bill that includes the $2.3 billion increase for NIH. The boost for NIH--more than most agency supporters had thought possible in the prevailing political environment--was viewed by some observers as a way NIH champions in Congress could ensure the agency gets at least a $2 billion increase, should there be an across-the-board cut in federal discretionary spending.

Republicans have floated the idea of applying an across-the-board cut to all discretionary accounts (but not to entitlements such as Medicaid and Medicare) as a way to avoid dipping into the portion of the FY 2000 federal budget surplus generated by excess Social Security revenues.

The $2.3 billion figure for NIH also was said to be favored by some lawmakers because it puts NIH closer to the goal of doubling its budget over a five-year period, an initiative launched with the FY 1999 $2 billion increase.

"It's a great number and a good marker," said one NIH advocate monitoring the negotiations. "It helps our cause enormously even if this number comes down."

hProgress toward completing work on the L/HHS bill coincided Monday with an agreement by President Clinton and Republican congressional leaders to meet today at the White House to discuss the impasse over FY 2000 spending.

While Republicans have said they do not want a "budget summit" with Clinton, Armey said the discussions could help spark a resolution of their various disagreements, as long as the White House agrees that spending Social Security revenues and raising taxes are not on the table.

--Matthew Davis



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