June 8, 2007

Funding for HSR Clears Subcommittees

On June 7, the House subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education appropriations approved its draft FY 2008 spending bill. The measure provides $151.5 billion in discretionary funding for the agencies and programs under its jurisdiction, including the principal funders of HSR (AHRQ, CDC, CMS, and NIH). It represents an increase of $6.9 billion, or 4.8 percent, over FY 2007 levels and $10.6 billion, or 7.5 percent, more than President Bush's FY 2008 budget request. With mandatory funding, the bill totals $607 billion.

The bill will be considered by the full committee on June 14, 2007.

Highlights for agencies funding HSR include:

- AHRQ would receive a $10 million increase, bringing overall funding to $329 million in FY 2008, including $78.9 million for patient safety and HIT research (a $5 million decrease) and $30 million for comparative effectiveness research (a $15 million increase).

- CDC would receive a total of $6.4 billion, a $246 million, or 4 percent, increase over FY 2007 and $466 million more than Bush's request. Of this funding, $31 million is provided for public health research. The Health Information Service, of which the National Center for Health Statistics is a part, would receive $254 million; a $31 million increase over FY 2007. We will not know how much NCHS will receive until the committee report is released.

- NIH would receive $29.6 billion. Assuming the proportion of funds invested in health services research remains consistent at 3.30 percent of total funding, we can expect $977 million to be dedicated to NIH's HSR.

- CMS would receive only $20.0 million in discretionary funding for research, demonstrations, and evaluations, compared to $57 million in FY 2007. Once the committee report is available, we'll have a better idea as to how much of this amount is earmarked, and how much is available for the agency's planned R&D agenda.

On June 6, the House Appropriations Committee approved a draft spending bill for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs that includes $480 million for Medical and Prosthetic Research. This program includes funding for VA's Health Services Research and Development Service. Assuming the proportion of funds invested in HSR remains consistent at 15.5 percent of total funding for Medical and Prosthetic Research, funding for health services research will be approximately $74 million; a $10 million increase over FY 2006.

For more information on funding for HHS programs and agencies, please visit:

appropriations.house.gov/pdf/08LHDetail_HouseSC_WEB.pdf

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Appropriations Archives