House Committee Approves FY 2019 Labor-HHS-Education Funding
On July 11, the full House Appropriations Committee approved its fiscal year (FY) 2019 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Appropriations Bill; the Labor-HHS Subcommittee advanced the bill on June 15. This bill contains annual funding proposals for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Education (ED), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), among other federal departments and agencies.
The Senate Appropriations Committee reported its version of the bill on June 28 (more here).
At a Glance…
- The House bill includes a total of $38.334 billion for NIH in FY 2019, a $1.25 billion or 3.4 percent increase over the FY 2018 level. This amount is 10.8 percent over the President’s request, but nearly 2 percent below the Senate bill.
- The bill would allocate $7.58 billion to the CDC, a cut of $422.9 million compared to FY 2018 and about $230 million less than the amount proposed by the Senate bill.
- The House bill includes $334 million for AHRQ, flat with the FY 2018 enacted level and the same as the amount proposed by the Senate. The bill does not accept the Administration’s proposed consolidation of AHRQ as a new institute within the NIH.
- The House bill would provide flat funding for BLS at $612 million, $3 million less than the amount proposed by the Senate, but still more than the amount requested by the Administration.
- Within the Department of Education, the bill would provide $613.5 million to the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which would be flat with its FY 2018 appropriation and 17.6 percent above the FY 2019 funding request from the Administration.
At time of publication, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have reported out 23 of the 24-fiscal year (FY) 2019 appropriations bills, twelve bills each for the House and Senate. This represents significant progress in appropriations compared to the last few fiscal years, likely thanks to a top-line spending deal struck earlier this year. However, the House of Representatives will leave D.C. for August recess starting July 30, giving them only 14 working days to approve spending bills and reconcile differences with the Senate before the government shuts down on October 1. The Senate will stay in session for much of the month of August to complete work on approving presidential nominees and vote on some of the remaining spending bills. So far, the full House has approved five of the twelve spending bills, while the Senate has only approved three. Keep up with COSSA’s coverage of FY 2019 appropriations here.
Read on for COSSA’s analysis of the House Appropriations Committee’s proposals for the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Department of Education.