Congressional Activities for the 108th Congress
November 30- December 1, 2004

APPROPRIATIONS AND BUDGET

The President's Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 was announced on February 2, 2004, providing a $2.4 trillion spending plan that would reduce next year's funding for nearly half the federal government's agencies while funneling large sums toward anti-terrorism and military programs. Funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is set at $28.757 billion, an increase of 2.6 percent. Of that amount, NCI would receive a 2.8 percent increase to $4.870 billion. The House Appropriations Committee voted to report a Labor HHS Education bill on July 14 which provides $28.441 billion for the NIH, of which NCI would receive $4.870 billion. The House bill (H.R. 5006) was passed as amended by the House on September 9 by a vote of 388-13. On September 15, 2004, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to report a Labor HHS Education bill (S. 2810). The bill provides $28.9 billion for the NIH, of which NCI would receive $4.894 billion. Senate bill 2810 was not considered before the full Senate.

FY 2004 ended on September 30th, and Congress made limited progress toward passing appropriations needed for 2005. While the House approved the FY 2005 Concurrent Budget Resolution on May 19, 2004 and quickly moved on to pass 10 of the 13 appropriations bills before the summer recess, the Senate had yet to pass the resolution which made it difficult for them to bring appropriations bills to the floor for debate. Adoption of the budget resolution is part of a process that allows members to block floor amendments that would push the cost of appropriations bills beyond spending caps. Just before the end of the fiscal year, the President was presented with and signed a continuing resolution (H.J.Res. 107) that would fund the government at 2004 levels until November 20, 2004. Congress reconvened on November 16, 2004 to try and pass appropriations bills either individually or as an omnibus measure. Congress combined the remaining spending bills into an omnibus measure, using the Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill (HR 4818) as the vehicle. H.J.Res. 114 was signed by the President on November 20, 2004 and will fund the government through December 3, 2004 or until the omnibus appropriations measure is signed into law. Both the House and Senate adopted the conference report (H Rept 108-792) Saturday, voting 344-51 and 65-30, respectively. However, the measure will be held by the Senate until November 24, 2004 when the House is expected to clear an enrolling resolution (H Con Res 528) to remove from the omnibus a provision that would give appropriators access to any tax return filed with the IRS.

FY 2005: BILLS RELATED TO APPROPRIATIONS
H. Con. Res. 393 - Introduced by Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA) on March 19, 2004 to establish the congressional budget for the US Government for fiscal year 2005. The House budget plan would allocate $821.3 billion to the Appropriations Committee to be distributed among the 13 annual spending bills. That figure includes $2.5 billion already appropriated for Project BioShield. The House plan reduces discretionary spending for Budget Function 550 (Health) from $46.78 billion in FY 2004 to $46.32 billion in FY 2005. Since the Resolution does not specifically mention NIH, its potential effect on NIH is not clear. H. Con. Res. 393 passed the House on March 25 by a vote of 215-212, and was incorporated into the Senate version of the FY 05 budget resolution on March 29, 2004. The House adopted the conference report on May 19 by a vote of 216-213.

S. Con. Res. 95 - Introduced by Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK) on March 5, 2004. On March 11, the measure passed the Senate by a vote of 51-45. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) offered an amendment to increase the recommended funding level for NIH by $1.3 billion. The amendment passed by a vote of 72-24, but not without some rancor from Sen. Pete Domeneci (R-NM). Sen. Domenici spoke about the funding slight of other science agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, and the underfunding of research at NASA and the Department of Energy as areas that should be of more concern than the NIH budget. Another amendment, which was defeated, was offered by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) to increase the federal tobacco tax and use the proceeds to increase resources for medical research.

H.R. 5006 - Making Appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education

• Introduced by Representative Ralph Regula (R-OH) on Sept. 7, 2004
• Reported by House Appropriations Committee (108-636) Sept. 7
• Passed by the full House on Sept. 9, 2004

S. 2810 - Making Appropriations for the Departments of Labor, health and Human Services and Education

• Introduced by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) on Sept. 15, 2004-10-28
• Reported by the Senate Appropriations Committee (S. Rept 108-345) Sept. 15, 2004
• The Senate did not act further on this bill

H.J. Res. 107 - Continuing Appropriations Resolution

• On September 29, the House passed by a vote of 389 to 32, H.J. Res. 107, a continuing resolution (CR) to fund non-defense agencies, including NIH, at fiscal 2004 levels through November 20.
• The Senate passed the CR by voice vote, clearing the CR for Presidential signature before the new fiscal year began on Friday, October 1.
• With this stopgap spending bill in place, appropriators began assembling an omnibus spending package comprising all of the fiscal 2005 spending bills that Congress failed to enact as stand-alone measures, which includes the FY2005 Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations bill. Their goal was to have the omnibus ready for consideration when lawmakers return on Nov. 16, 2004 for a lame-duck session.
• H.J. Res 107b was signed into law on September 30, 2004

H.J. Res. 114 - Continuing Appropriations Resolution FY2005

• On November 19, Rep. Bill Young (R-FL) introduced H.J. Res 114, a continuing resolution to fund non-defense agencies, including NIH, at fiscal 2004 levels through December 3
• Both the House and the Senate passed the CR on November 20, 2004
• The President signed the CR on November 21, 2004
• This stop gap measure was passed to give the President time to consider the omnibus appropriations bill

H.R. 4818

• The President signed H.J. Res. On November 20, 2004 and the resolution became law on November 24, 2004

H.R. 4818 - Consolidated FY2005 Appropriations bill

• Introduced on July 13, 2004 by Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) and referred to the House Committee on Appropriations
• Originally designed to provide appropriations for foreign operations, export financing, and related programs, this bill became the Omnibus appropriations bill on November 17, 2004
• The conference report (H Rept. 108-792) was agreed to and filed on November 20, 2004 and has passed both the House and the Senate
• The conference report designates $28,526,871,000 billion for NIH, of which NCI will receive $4,865,525,000 billion
• The report is being held at the desk pending the adoption of H.C. Res 528 as amended by the House. This resolution would make some technical revisions to the bill that are unrelated to NIH. The bill is expected to be signed by the President soon

FY 2004: BILLS RELATED TO APPROPRIATIONS
H.J. Res. 75, 76, 78, 79 - A series of continuing resolutions were enacted to keep the government running while the Congress worked to complete passage of FY 2004 spending bills. The continuing resolution (PL 108-185) that kept the government in full operation was to expire Jan. 31.

H. R. 2660 - Making Appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education

• Introduced by Representative Ralph Regula (R-OH) and referred to House Committee on Appropriations on July 8, 2003.
• House Report 108-188 was filed on July 8
• Passed by the full House on July 10, 2003
• Passed by the Senate on September 10, 2003
• Sent to conference on October 2, 2003
• Bundled into an omnibus bill (now identified as HR 2673)
• Omnibus passed and signed into law January 23,2004 (P.L. 108-199)

S. 1356 - Making Appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Servcies and Education

• Introduced by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) on June 26 and referred to House Committee on Appropriations. It was also reported by the Committee (Senate Report 108-81) on June 26. Subsequently the House bill, HR 2660, became the vehicle for Labor, HHS, Education appropriations.

H.R. 2673 - Making Appropriations for the Department of Agriculture

• Omnibus bill that incorporates the following 7 spending measures: Agriculture; Commerce-Justice-State; District of Columbia; Foreign Operations; Labor-HHS-Education; Transportation-Tresaury; VA-HUD.
• Confrerence report filed on November 25, 2003
• Became the omnibus spending packaged for 7 appropriation bills, including the Labor/HHS/Education bill (HR 2660)
• The bill provides $27,663,991,000 for NIH, of which NCI would receive $4,770,519,000
• Omnibus passed and signed into law January 25,2004 (P.L. 108-199)

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