The House approved its FY 2007 budget resolution (H.Con.Res. 376) on May 18th. Moderate Republicans, led by Mike Castle, agreed to support the budget resolution when House leadership agreed in a non-binding resolution to support additional funding for health and education.
The American Association of Medical Colleges says:
The moderates, led by Rep. Mike Castle (Del.), Nancy Johnson (Conn.), and Dave Reichert (Wash.), had offered a substitute budget to increase funding for the Labor-HHS-Education appropriation by $7.158 billion to bring the bill to its FY 2006 level plus a 2 percent inflationary increase. As a result of negotiations on that amendment, the moderates secured a partial victory earlier this month when the House Appropriations Committee agreed to transfer over $6 billion from the defense and foreign operations accounts to domestic programs, including increasing the allocation for the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee by $4.1 billion above the President’s budget.
The budget resolution was amended to create a $3.1 billion reserve fund for health, education, and other domestic priorities, but only if these funds are offset by savings from other discretionary or mandatory programs. Under an amendment by Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), at least $1 billion of the offset for any increases for the Labor-HHS-Education bill would come from unobligated funds for Iraq reconstruction. The moderates also received assurances from the leadership that the additional $3.1 billion would not come from Medicaid, Medicare or other programs to help special populations.
What does this mean for cancer research and prevention?
It’s too soon to tell how the final negotiations between the House, the Senate and the President will end. However, in theory, this brings the funding available to health and education up to a level which will preclude the cuts envisioned in the President’s Budget.
Again, these are just the initial decisions on cancer research and prevention funding this year. The fight to increase funding will continue throughout the spring and summer in both the House and Senate. C3 will alert you when your actions will make the most difference, so be sure you have registered as a One Minute Advocate to get our action alerts!
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