The Senate Appropriations Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee on Tuesday by voice vote approved a $631 billion fiscal year 2009 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill, CQ Today reports.
The legislation includes $153.1 billion in discretionary spending, an $8 billion increase from FY 2008 and $7.7 billion more than requested by President Bush. The bill would provide $68.3 billion in discretionary spending for HHS.
The legislation would provide about $30 billion in spending for NIH, a $1.1 billion increase from FY 2008 (Wayne, CQ Today, 6/24). Subcommittee Chair Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said that the increase in spending for NIH would help the agency respond to "biomedical inflation" and retain young researchers. According to Harkin, after adjustment for inflation, the NIH budget has decreased by 12.3% since 2003.
The bill also would increase spending for community health centers by $150 million to $2.2 billion, for nursing education by $11.6 million to $167 million, for senior nutrition services by $43 million to $801 million and for the National Cancer Institute by $153 million.
In addition, the legislation would increase spending for the Office on Smoking and Health at CDC (Kivlan, CongressDaily, 6/24). The bill would increase spending for influenza pandemic preparedness by 682% to $585.1 million from $75 million for FY 2008 (Wayne, CQ Today, 6/24). The legislation also includes $25 million for a new program that would provide subsidized colorectal cancer screenings for low-income U.S. residents. Spending for a program that provides breast and cervical cancer screenings for low-income women would remain flat under the bill (CongressDaily, 6/24).
Harkin said that he hopes to move the legislation to the Senate floor for a vote in July. According to CQ Today, Bush likely would veto the bill (Wayne, CQ Today, 6/24).
House Panel Passes Military Construction-VA Spending Bill
The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday by voice vote approved a $118.7 billion FY 2009 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs appropriations bill, CQ Today reports.
The legislation includes $72.7 billion in discretionary spending, with $47.7 billion for VA (Johnson, CQ Today, 6/24). The discretionary spending included in the bill represents a $4.6 billion increase from FY 2008 and $2.9 billion more than Bush requested (Scully, CongressDaily, 6/25). The bill also includes $46 billion in mandatory spending for VA.
The legislation would provide $40.8 billion for the Veterans Health Administration, a $3.9 billion increase from FY 2008 and $1.6 billion more than Bush requested. The VHA budget includes:
- $568 million to increase enrollment of Priority 8 veterans by 10%;
- $300 million to address nonrecurrent maintenance at VA health care facilities;
- $200 million to increase access to fee-based care for veterans who do not live near VA facilities;
- $116 million for new prosthetics; and
- $58 million for medical research in trauma, mental health and other areas.
The bill also includes at least $3.8 billion for specialty health services, $584 million for substance use programs and $2 billion for VA construction projects. In addition, the legislation would increase subcommittee oversight of efforts to care for veterans who develop mental illnesses, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use problems or suicidal tendencies.
Before approval of the bill, the committee passed an amendment sponsored by ranking member Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) that would increase the mileage reimbursement rate for veterans who travel to VA facilities to 41.5 cents per mile from 35 cents per mile (Johnson, CQ Today, 6/24).
Second Supplemental Spending Bill Possible
A "long-awaited" supplemental war appropriations bill that includes domestic spending provisions has "yet to reach ... Bush's desk," but "Democrats are already talking about a second supplemental spending measure focused on domestic needs," CQ Today reports (Higa, CQ Today, 6/24). According to CongressDaily, after "House approval of the war package last week, Democratic leaders in both the Senate and House ... talked of the need for a second supplemental [measure] in an effort to head off attempts by senators to include additional funding in the bill and undo a delicately struck agreement with the White House" (Sanchez, CongressDaily, 6/25).
"Among the candidates for inclusion in a second supplemental are ... additional aid for Hurricane Katrina recovery," such as a provision removed from the first supplemental appropriations bill that would provide $157 million for six hospitals in Louisiana, CQ Today reports (Higa, CQ Today, 6/24). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that the second supplemental appropriations bill also might include a provision to expand SCHIP (Alpert, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 6/25).