Department of Health and Human Services

The $698 billion FY 2007 budget request for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reflects an increase of $58 billion over FY 2006, most of which occurs in mandatory spending programs such as Medicare. Total discretionary spending drops by $1.5  billion. Funding levels for discretionary programs such as the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are diverse. For example, FDA would receive a $71 million increase over its FY 2006 level, while CDC would experience a $367 million decrease.



The Administration is proposing to terminate three HHS programs related to community and economic development -- Community Services Block Grants ($630 million in FY06), Community Economic Development ($33 million) and Rural Community Facilities grants ($7 million).



Although the total NIH FY07 request of $28.587 billion is the same as the FY06 program level, FY07 funding for all but one of the 24 institutes, centers and the National Library of Medicine that comprise NIH would decrease, based on the Administration's request. The exception is the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which would see a 0.2 percent increase to $4.395 billion. Funding for the Office of the Director also would increase by $140 million or 26.5 percent to support the Advanced Development fund described below.



Despite the level funding, NIH anticipates supporting 9,337 competing research project grants, an increase of 275 over the FY06 appropriation. It also plans to support 1,373 research centers via $2.834 billion in proposed funding, a 2.3 percent or $62 million increase.



Stipends for trainees supported by the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) will remain at the FY06 appropriation levels. No increases are provided for other components of the NRSA training programs, such as tuition or health benefits. Training remains at approximately the same level as the FY06 appropriation, with support provided for 17,499 full-time training positions.



Specific funding priorities for NIH in FY07 include:

• Biodefense - $1.9 billion (6.2 percent increase). Within this increase, NIH will direct $160 million ($110 million increase) to an Advanced Development fund. This initiative will support efforts to work with academia and industry to develop candidate countermeasures from the point of Investigation New Drug Application to the level that these candidate countermeasures could be eligible for acquisition by Project BioShield.
• Roadmap for Biomedical Research - $443 million ($113 million increase). The Roadmap consists of three main areas -- New Pathways to Discovery ($181 million), Research Teams of the Future ($81 million), and Re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise ($181 million).
• Enhanced Support for New Investigators - $15 million for a new Pathway to Independence program that will provide increased support for new investigators engaging in interdisciplinary research.
• Genes, Environment and Health Initiative - $68 million for this new multi-year initiative to catalyze the development of U.S. biotech and make resulting data available to public and private researchers, speeding the development of new strategies and tools to fight disease.
• HIV/AIDS Research - $2.9 billion ($15.2 million or 0.5 percent decrease)

The FY07 NIH SBIR/STTR budget for research grants is estimated to total $603 million, a $2 million decrease. The total available for contract awards through the SBIR and STTR programs is estimated to be $27 million, which is even with the FY06 level.