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Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1999 10:12:24 -0400 (EDT)
From: [log in to unmask] (Nita Andres)
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 Andres ([log in to unmask]) on Friday, October 22, 1999 at 10:12:23
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WASHINGTON FAX   October 22, 1999


An FY 2000 budget increase of $2.3 billion for the National Institutes of Health may be close, but yesterday it was not a "done deal"




Biomedical research advocates were buzzing Thursday over news that Republican House and Senate appropriators had signed off on a bill that would give the National Institutes of Health (NIH) a $2.3 billion increase in FY 2000.

However, some advocates were keeping their champagne tightly corked as continually shifting political sands and the legislation's shaky accounting procedures left the NIH boost shy of a "done deal."

The increase for NIH is contained in a compromise FY 2000 Labor, Health an Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (L/HHS) funding bill informally cobbled together over the past few days by key lawmakers from the House and Senate L/HHS appropriations panels. The strategy as of late Thursday was to attach the legislation to the appropriations bill for the District of Columbia and try to move it through Congress today.

The Republican congressional leadership decided last week to side-step the normal process for the L/HHS bill after it became clear that a version of the legislation approved by the House Appropriations Committee did not contain enough money to pass muster with the full House. The Senate approved its draft of the L/HHS bill earlier this month.

The House Appropriations Committee bill contained a $1.35 billion increase for NIH while the Senate-passed measure had an extra $2 billion. The administration had asked for a $300 million boost.

In negotiations directed largely by the chairs of the House and Senate L/HHS subcommittees--Rep. John Porter, R-IL, and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA--Republicans produced a bill yesterday that included the $2.3 billion increase for NIH--for a total budget of $17.9 billion--and more spending on education programs than the White House requested. But the measure still drew fire from the administration because, for example, it provides some of the education money as block grants to states, rather than requiring that it be spent to hire more teachers.

Coupled with the possibility of a presidential veto is the fact that it was not clear Thursday whether the Republican leadership was ready to sign-off on the bill's funding strategy. In order to avoid dipping into the Social Security portion of the federal budget surplus, Republicans have bankrolled their generous spending on biomedical research and education programs with a variety of funding gimmicks that allow them to keep billions in L/HHS funds from being technically counted as FY 2000 disbursements.

For example, there is still talk among Republicans about instituting an across-the-board spending cut for all discretionary programs, but there was no discussion Thursday of how big such a cut might be.

Also adding to a sense of uncertainty was another exchange of partisan political fire between congressional Republicans and the White House after both sides had promised only Tuesday to infuse a bit of civility into the process.

The bottom line for biomedical research advocates Thursday was that now was no time to relax. Bill Brinkley, a biomedical researcher at Baylor and immediate past president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, decided it was time to put in a call to his congressman, who happens to be House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-TX.

Brinkley said a DeLay staffer warned him that the $2.3 billion "might get adjusted downward a little bit."

Brinkley responded that a small reduction would be tolerable, but that it would be "very devastating at this point to go back to the House number," i.e. the $1.35 billion increase approved by the House Appropriations Committee.

"I really wanted to let him (DeLay) know that we have gotten very good vibes this week about the ($2.3 billion increase)," Brinkley said in an interview. "We are feeling like it has lifted the spirits of the medical centers and research centers across the country."

Members of several scientific societies were asking their rank and file to contact lawmakers, particularly appropriators, to thank them for the $2.3 billion currently in the bill and to ask them to hold firm on that number, sources said.

--Matthew Davis


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