February 10, 2009
Senate Clears Recovery Bill Congress is working to pass an economic recovery package that could contain significant funding for our field. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in both the House and Senate would provide over two years $1.1 billion to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) for comparative effectiveness research (CER). Specifically, the proposals include:
- $300 million provided to AHRQ to support CER conducted through they agency's Effective Health Care Program. Currently, $30 million of AHRQ's total budget is provided to this program;
- $400 million, which would be transferred from AHRQ to the National Institutes of Health to support its CER; and
- $400 million, which would be transferred to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to, among other things, establish a Coordinating Council for CER to advise the Congress and president on CER priorities and infrastructure.
In addition, the House and original Senate bills included $40 million for the National Center for Health Statistics to modernize the vital statistics system within the broader "Prevention and Wellness Fund." However, this public health prevention funding was ultimately stripped out of the Senate's final version of the bill as part of a bi-partisan compromise to decrease the package's overall cost.
The House passed its version of the stimulus package January 28 (244-188); the Senate passed its recovery package February 10 (61-37). Conference between the House and Senate to reconcile differences between the two bills has yet to convene, though Congress' goal remains to pass the final bill for the President's signature no later than February 13.
With work on the economic recovery package still underway, Congress has postponed work on the remaining FY 2009 appropriations bills. Although numbers have not been released, AHRQ and NCHS will likely receive increases in their agency budgets. These agencies are currently operating under a continuing resolution that provides flat funding at FY 2008 levels and expires March 6.
The stimulus package bills and reports are now online:
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