House Republicans Reject Proposed Omnibus Budget Package

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 20 Nov 2007 - 7:00 PDT

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House Republicans last week rejected a proposal from Democrats that would reduce the amount of spending that they have sought for the fiscal year 2008 budget, but "it's unclear how long GOP leaders will be able to keep getting their members to walk the plank against popular spending bills," Roll Call reports (Dennis, Roll Call, 11/19). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday announced a proposal to combine the 11 unapproved FY 2008 appropriations bills into a $484.2 billion omnibus package that would divide the $22 billion difference between the amount of spending sought by Democrats and requested by President Bush. The White House on Thursday indicated that Bush would veto the package (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 11/16).

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) last week rejected the package and said Democrats must negotiate with Republicans, not only the White House. According to Roll Call, some "conservatives dream of forcing Democrats to adopt a yearlong continuing resolution that would freeze spending across the board," but some Senate Republicans "have been quietly urging the White House to come to the negotiating table" (Roll Call, 11/19). Republican members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Friday met to discuss the package. Committee ranking member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) said that Republican committee members might support the package, adding that they first need to review the details of the proposal (Clarke, CQ Today, 11/16).

NIH Budget
In other budget news, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni and Billy Tauzin, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, on Friday at a conference in Washington, D.C., said that the agency requires additional funds to continue research on new medical advances, CQ HealthBeat reports. The NIH budget has remained flat since 2003. A $606 billion FY 2008 Labor-HHS-Education (HR 3043) appropriations bill passed by the House and Senate would have increased the NIH budget by $2 billion to $30 billion, but Bush vetoed the legislation.

According to CQ HealthBeat, "Zerhouni and Tauzin made no mention of the Labor-HHS spending bill or the veto in their speeches, but both clearly expressed disapproval of more flat funding at NIH, which becomes more likely following the veto." At the conference, sponsored by PhRMA and Research America!, Tauzin said, "We've got to be concerned that not only is the NIH budget relatively flat, but that it could continue to go down. That's a danger signal for every patient who continues to wait for the next great discovery." Zerhouni added, "What's the sense of saying you really want to double research, and then cut it every year by a little bit, a little bit, a little bit?" (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 11/16).

Editorial
"It's really amazing that ... Bush can maintain a straight face while attempting to portray himself as fiscally responsible in the latest budget battle with Congress," as he "is the same president who inherited a budget surplus and promptly proceeded to run up deficits that have ballooned the national debt to more than $9 trillion," according to a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial. According to the editorial, Bush said that he vetoed the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill "because the Democratic Congress had loaded the bill with too much pork," but the legislation included "needed increases" in funds for NIH, cancer research, community health centers, rural health care and other programs.

Meanwhile, Bush signed the Defense appropriations bill (HR 3222), although he "admits there is unnecessary spending in the defense measure too," the editorial states. The editorial concludes that Bush "can't act like a fiscal conservative on the domestic front, while signing blank checks for the Pentagon" (Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/18).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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