Endocrine Insider
August 1, 2007

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the FY 2008 Labor-Health and Human Services (HHS)-Education appropriations bill, which outlines funding allocations for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), on July 19, 2007 by a vote of 276-140. The bill provides NIH with a $750 million increase (2.6 percent) over FY 2007 levels. However, because the House bill requires that the NIH transfer $201 million of this increase to the Global Aids Fund, the net NIH funding increase is $549 million (1.9 percent) for FY 2008. While this appropriation is a significant increase over the $231 million cut that the President proposed for NIH, it is well below the FY 2008 6.7 percent increase that the scientific community has recommended. Although the bill passed with a veto-proof margin, it remains to be seen how some of the Republicans who voted for the bill will vote when asked to sustain the President’s expected veto. 146 votes are necessary to sustain a Presidential veto in the House.

The full Senate has not yet scheduled a vote on its version of the Labor-HHS appropriations measure, but the Senate Labor-HHS appropriations committee recommended a net $799 million increase for NIH over FY 2007 levels (2.8 percent). If the Senate approves the appropriations bill with these levels, a final increase for NIH will be established in a conference committee between the two chambers.

Updates will be provided in future issues of Endocrine Insider.