US Congress punts the budget

Budgets for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and most federal agencies other than the Pentagon will not be finalized until Congress reconvenes for a "lame duck" session after the November elections. And if past is prelude, the fiscal year (FY) 2005 budget, which began October 1, may not be enacted until a new Congress, and possibly a new administration, take office in January. "It's the same kind of situation we had 4 years ago," said Jon Retzlaf, legislative affairs director for the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. "At that time, we didn't even know who the president was. But Congress was able to push and get the budget done in December." What will happen this year, of course, is far from certain. The House and Senate are relatively far apart in their respective budget appropriations for NIH, NSF, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other agencies. This, combined with tighter-than-usual fiscal constraints and intense partisan politics, may make it harder for lawmakers to forge compromises in conference committees. It also increases the likelihood that budget bills will end up being combined into one or more omnibus spending measures to be considered in November or December, or possibly even pushed into the new calendar year. "Like the election, what happens with the budget is too close to call," said Dave Moore, associate vice president for governmental relations at the Association of American Medical Colleges. On September 29, Congress passed a continuing resolution (HJ Res 107) to keep the government running at last year's (FY 2004) spending levels from October 1 until November 20. The resolution covers funding for everything except the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the District of Columbia, the only three spending bills whose budgets have so far passed Congress. On Saturday (October 9), members of the House passed a $32 billion bill to finance the Department of Homeland Security. Yesterday (October 11), the Senate approved the measure, which includes $2.5 billion for Project BioShield. Legislators plan to return the week of November 15 to see if they can hammer out budgets for the 10 remaining appropriations bills. Since the continuing resolution expires November 20, an additional resolution will have to be passed for those bills that are not approved that week. Thus far, the full House has passed 12 of 13 appropriations bills (except Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies, which include NSF), while the Senate has approved only six. "Hopefully, appropriations staff members can work between now and then to iron out some of the bigger issues so an omnibus bill can be passed," said a House Appropriations Committee staff member, speaking on condition of anonymity. On September 9, the full House approved its version of the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill (HR 5006), giving NIH $28.5 billion, a 2.6% increase of $727 million over FY 2004's funding that matches the administration's request. On September 15, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version of the bill (S 2810), increasing NIH's appropriation to $28.9 billion, a 4% increase of $1.1 billion over last year and some $373 million more than the House had approved. The Senate bill also boosted CDC funding to $4.8 billion, a 5% increase of $228.4 million over last year, $345 million more than the White House requested, and $33 million more than the House level. CDC also is responsible for managing some $1.2 billion for childhood vaccines and $1.1 billion for bioterror therapies, bringing the agency's total request to about $6.9 billion. But "under any scenario, it's a disappointment," said Evan Jones, chairman of the Campaign for Public Health, an organization that seeks to boost CDC's annual budget allocation to $15 billion. An increase to this amount is needed to translate the discoveries and potential therapies emerging from NIH following the doubling of its budget, said Jones, who is also chairman and chief executive of Digene, a manufacturer of gene-based diagnostic equipment in Gaithersburg, Md. Boosting CDC's budget "is a logical segue," he said. The Senate Appropriations Committee also voted to raise the NSF budget (S 2825) to $5.7 billion, matching the White House's request, which is 3% or $167 million more than FY 2004. This is $278 million more than the House appropriation of $5.5 billion, which is a 2% cut of $111 million over last year and $278 million less than requested. Senators on the Appropriations Committee employed what some termed "creative" ways to allocate more funds for these and other departments: They simply declared $2 billion in discretionary spending to be "emergency" funds not subject to a self-imposed cap. The tactic reportedly has irked House leaders who have opted to toe a tighter line. "We're not hearing optimistic signals from appropriators that they can get this done before the end of the year" because of the difference, Moore said. But some predict progress might be swifter than expected for no other reason than the chairmen of the House and Senate appropriations committees—Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Ark.)—are retiring and want to leave their stamps on the budget. "They will like to see things get done on their watch, before they leave," Retzlaf told The Scientist.

US Congress punts the budget

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