President Bush Submits FY 2009 Budget to Congress; Proposes Minimal Increases for NIH

February 4, 2008 – President Bush released his FY 2009 budget proposal today, which would cut billions of dollars from federal health programs and eliminate scores of programs supported by the Democratic-controlled Congress in order to make his first-term tax cuts permanent. Despite indicating a desire to "improve public health through science that ... delivers new advances towards the cures for tomorrow," the President’s proposal includes only a slight increase in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). For FY 2009, President Bush has proposed $29.3 billion in funding for NIH; by means of comparison, the final FY 2008 funding bill that passed in December 2007 contained $28.942 billion for NIH. Below is a summary of the proposed budget numbers for institutes of particular interest to ASH:

Proposed FY 2009 National Institutes of Health Funding

(Dollars in Billions)

If enacted, the minimal proposed funding increase for NIH, combined with projected Biomedical Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI) increases of over 3 percent, would be extremely detrimental to NIH and hematologic research. The President’s proposal represents the sixth consecutive year that the NIH budget has failed to keep pace with biomedical inflation. For FY 2009, ASH and the biomedical research community have recommended $31.1 billion for NIH, an increase of $1.9 billion over the FY 2008 funding level.

Another budget area of interest to ASH is Medicare payment to physicians. President Bush has included legislative proposals in his last several budgets to reduce Medicare reimbursement to physicians. This budget proposal, however, only includes reference to the fact that last year’s Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act replaced the scheduled -10 percent cut with a 0.5 percent increase through June 30, 2008. Legislation will be needed to prevent cuts after July 1, 2008.

It is important to remember that the President's budget request is simply a starting point for the annual budget process. Further, because this is the budget of a "lame duck" president, the Democrat-controlled Congress has no incentive to help the President enact his policy goals.

Now is the time to contact your Senators and Representative to generate their interest in supporting FY 2009 NIH funding. ASH will continue its advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill during the FY 2009 budget debate and encourages all members to visit the ASH Advocacy Center to take action to help influence the budget process and support increased funding for NIH. Your Senators and Representative need to hear from you about ensuring adequate funding for NIH in FY 2009.

ASH will keep its membership informed about each step in the debate toward the completion of the FY 2009 federal budget, with frequent updates posted on the Society’s Web site. More detailed information about the President’s FY 2009 Budget Request for the Department of Health and Human Services is also available online, as is a detailed summary of the proposed NIH budget.

If you have questions, please contact ASH Research Advocacy Manager Tracy Roades at 202-776-0544 or troades@hematology.org.