POL[Fwd: Washington Fax story]

[Nita Andres <andres2@xxxxxxxxxx>]

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• To: andres2@xxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: Washington Fax story
• From: andres2@xxxxxxxxxx (Nita Andres)
• Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1999 10:12:24 -0400 (EDT)

Below is the text of a Washington Fax news story. It has been forwarded to you 
by
Nita Andres (andres2@xxxxxxxxxx) on Friday, October 22, 1999 at 10:12:23
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WASHINGTON FAX   October 22, 1999


An FY 2000 budget increase of $2.3 billion for the National Institutes of 
Health may be close, but yesterday it was not a "done deal"




Biomedical research advocates were buzzing Thursday over news that Republican 
House and Senate appropriators had signed off on a bill that would give the 
National Institutes of Health (NIH) a $2.3 billion increase in FY 2000.

However, some advocates were keeping their champagne tightly corked as 
continually shifting political sands and the legislation's shaky accounting 
procedures left the NIH boost shy of a "done deal."

The increase for NIH is contained in a compromise FY 2000 Labor, Health an 
Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (L/HHS) funding bill informally 
cobbled together over the past few days by key lawmakers from the House and 
Senate L/HHS appropriations panels. The strategy as of late Thursday was to 
attach the legislation to the appropriations bill for the District of Columbia 
and try to move it through Congress today.

The Republican congressional leadership decided last week to side-step the 
normal process for the L/HHS bill after it became clear that a version of the 
legislation approved by the House Appropriations Committee did not contain 
enough money to pass muster with the full House. The Senate approved its draft 
of the L/HHS bill earlier this month.

The House Appropriations Committee bill contained a $1.35 billion increase for 
NIH while the Senate-passed measure had an extra $2 billion. The administration 
had asked for a $300 million boost.

In negotiations directed largely by the chairs of the House and Senate L/HHS 
subcommittees--Rep. John Porter, R-IL, and Sen. Arlen Specter, 
R-PA--Republicans produced a bill yesterday that included the $2.3 billion 
increase for NIH--for a total budget of $17.9 billion--and more spending on 
education programs than the White House requested. But the measure still drew 
fire from the administration because, for example, it provides some of the 
education money as block grants to states, rather than requiring that it be 
spent to hire more teachers.

Coupled with the possibility of a presidential veto is the fact that it was not 
clear Thursday whether the Republican leadership was ready to sign-off on the 
bill's funding strategy. In order to avoid dipping into the Social Security 
portion of the federal budget surplus, Republicans have bankrolled their 
generous spending on biomedical research and education programs with a variety 
of funding gimmicks that allow them to keep billions in L/HHS funds from being 
technically counted as FY 2000 disbursements.

For example, there is still talk among Republicans about instituting an 
across-the-board spending cut for all discretionary programs, but there was no 
discussion Thursday of how big such a cut might be.

Also adding to a sense of uncertainty was another exchange of partisan 
political fire between congressional Republicans and the White House after both 
sides had promised only Tuesday to infuse a bit of civility into the process.

The bottom line for biomedical research advocates Thursday was that now was no 
time to relax. Bill Brinkley, a biomedical researcher at Baylor and immediate 
past president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental 
Biology, decided it was time to put in a call to his congressman, who happens 
to be House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-TX.

Brinkley said a DeLay staffer warned him that the $2.3 billion "might get 
adjusted downward a little bit."

Brinkley responded that a small reduction would be tolerable, but that it would 
be "very devastating at this point to go back to the House number," i.e. the 
$1.35 billion increase approved by the House Appropriations Committee.

"I really wanted to let him (DeLay) know that we have gotten very good vibes 
this week about the ($2.3 billion increase)," Brinkley said in an interview. 
"We are feeling like it has lifted the spirits of the medical centers and 
research centers across the country."

Members of several scientific societies were asking their rank and file to 
contact lawmakers, particularly appropriators, to thank them for the $2.3 
billion currently in the bill and to ask them to hold firm on that number, 
sources said.

--Matthew Davis


(C) 1998 WASHINGTON FAX, an established news and information service
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