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Public Affairs |
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House Passes NIH Reform
Act of 2006 |
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On September 26, 2006, the House of
Representatives overwhelmingly passed H.R. 6164, the National Institutes of
Health Reform Act of 2006. Drafted by Energy and Commerce Chairman Joe
Barton (R-TX), the bill was passed with broad bipartisan support on a vote
of 414-2. H.R. 6164 serves as authorization legislation for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). All federal agencies require periodic Congressional authorization, and the purpose is to allow lawmakers to provide guidance and oversight, as well as set funding levels. Although Congress should reauthorize the NIH regularly, the agency does not require reauthorization in order to function. The last NIH reauthorization was in 1993. In the absence of a reauthorization bill, appropriators in Congress often include their own oversight recommendations in the yearly spending bills for the agency. Because the NIH budget was more than doubled over the last 10 years without a reauthorization, some Members of Congress felt that oversight of the agency was long overdue. More than 50 scientific societies and other organizations endorsed the NIH Reform Act, including the APS, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Association of American Universities. To read the letter that APS sent in support of the legislation, go to: http://www.the-aps.org/pa/resources/archives/comments/NIHreformAct.pdf Highlights of the legislation are outlined below. The NIH budget H.R. 6164 authorizes 5% budget increases each year during the period FY 2007-2009. NIH’s authorized budget level is $29.75 billion in FY 2007, $31.24 billion in FY 2008 and $32.8 billion in FY 2009. The proposed increases represent an improvement over the sub-inflationary increases the agency has received in the past few years, but with the biomedical research and development price index (BRDPI) hovering at 3.5%, the increases will do little to stem the loss of purchasing power. Some criticized the authorized budget increases in the bill as too low, but the consensus is that even a 5% increase will be challenging to achieve in the current fiscal climate. It is also important to note that the appropriators are not required to fund the agency at the authorized level. The bill also establishes a “Common Fund” within the NIH budget that will support trans-NIH initiatives. Trans-NIH initiatives are research projects that involve 2 or more institutes and centers (ICs). The Common Fund will be established using half of any new dollars allocated to NIH starting in the next fiscal year. This means that if NIH receives a 5% increase next year, half of those new dollars will go into the Common Fund. When the Common Fund reaches a level that is equal to 5% of the total NIH budget, the program will be reevaluated. The Common Fund will be used to fund a range of projects, and will include investigator-initiated research. Agency restructuring Included in the bill are numerous provisions that affect the management of the NIH. While no restructuring of existing institutes, centers, or divisions is mandated, the bill specifies that there should be no more than the current 27 ICs. A newly created Scientific Management Review Board made up of the NIH director, several IC directors and outside scientific experts will be charged with evaluating the structure of the agency every 7 years. The recommendations of that panel will be subject to a public review process before implementation, and the NIH director will have the formal opportunity to object to any of the panel’s recommendations. Reporting mechanisms H.R. 6164 will create a new reporting system to track the use of NIH dollars. The new system will electronically code grants and allow Congress and the public to see how much money NIH is spending on different areas of research. Prospects for Senate passage While the House Energy and Commerce Committee devoted considerable time to drafting the NIH Reform Act, the Senate has not considered reauthorization legislation in the current Congress. Prospects for the bill’s passage in the lame duck session are uncertain. Nevertheless, the NIH Reform Act found broad bipartisan support in the House and if it does not become law by the end of the current legislative session, it is likely to resurface in the next Congressional session. |
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