Republicans are boosting medical research and holding their fire on Obamacare in the first bipartisan appropriations healthcare bill to advance in seven years.
A spending bill that maintains funding for Obamacare and allocates more money for medical research is moving forward in the Senate, approved Tuesday by a subcommittee.
Republicans aren’t trying to defund the Affordable Care Act in the appropriations bill to fund the Department of Health and Human Services and several other agencies beginning Oct. 1, instead including in the bill a $2 billion funding boost for the National Institutes of Health. It heads to the full Senate Approprations Committee on Thursday after being approved Tuesday in a subcommittee.
The measure has broad support from Democrats, making it the first bipartisan Labor-HHS appropriations bill in seven years. Lawmakers are trying to return to a regular appropriations process, whereby Congress passes each of the 12 major spending bills to fund the government.
The bill notably includes another major funding increase for NIH, which already got a $2 billion infusion in the December omnibus spending bill. The latest cash infusion would bring the agency’s annual budget to $34 billion.
There’s an additional opportunity for more NIH funding in the medical cures bill being considered in another major Senate committee, led by Sen. Lamar Alexander. Democrats and Republicans have been negotiating over NIH funding in that bill, recently reaching an agreement to provide NIH with a one-time surge in mandatory funding to pay for several key projects outlined by the Obama administration.
Alexander, while expressing support for the appropriations bill, said he hopes it doesn’t “diminish the support” for additional NIH funding through the cures bill.
“This should not take the place of the work we’re doing at Health, Education, Labor and Pensions,” the Tennessee Republican said. “We need to wrap that up in the next couple of weeks, and I think that would make this a remarkable year that helps millions of Americans.”
After years of pleas from NIH Director Francis Collins for more funding, Congress is starting to infuse the agency with more money, although Democrats and Republicans have had some divisions over whether to give it mandatory funding or funds that are subject to annual appropriations.
“I think the funding for NIH is the stellar piece of this,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.
There’s agreement among many Republicans that continuing to try to defund the Affordable Care Act by holding up spending bills isn’t an effective approach to combat President Obama’s healthcare law, after Sen. Ted Cruz led an effort in 2013 that resulted in a two-week government shutdown.
