Coalition for Health Services Research

July 23, 2009

House Provides Increased Funding for HSR and Data

The FY 2010 appropriations process is underway in Congress, with health services research and health data seeing moderate gains (see funding chart). House and Senate Committees on Appropriations have each provided $83 million for the Veteran's Health Administration's health services research-up from $75 million in FY 2009.

The House Committee on Appropriations provides flat funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in FY 2010 due largely to the $300 million AHRQ received for comparative effectiveness research through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act earlier this year. Within the proposed $372 million budget, the Committee gives clear direction on how it wishes AHRQ to obligate funding based on the Coalition's recommendations-making greater investments in investigator initiated research, training grants, research on health care financing, organization, and delivery, and research dissemination and translation.

Under the House's bill, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) would receive a $14 million increase in FY 2010, bringing the agency's total budget to nearly $139 million. Based on the Coalition's recommendations, the Committee on Appropriations urges NCHS to use this funding to avoid further cuts to seminal surveys such as the National Health Interview Survey and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, as well as cuts to vital statistics that provide critical public health data on American births and deaths.

At the time of this writing, the Senate subcommittee with jurisdiction over health funding has yet to unveil its FY 2010 appropriations bill.

Congress hopes to clear all 12 appropriations bills under "regular order" before the September 30 close of the fiscal year. Nevertheless, it now seems more likely that the Congress will enact a continuing resolution to sustain federal funding at FY 2009 levels through the end of the calendar year while Congress uses floor time to debate health care reform and energy and climate change legislation.

Copies of the appropriations bills and reports are provided below:

Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Act