News from the Hill: February 26, 2024
Congress continues to work on final Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 appropriations bills ahead of the expiration of a laddered continuing appropriations resolution (CR) funding core parts of the federal government until March 1st and March 8th. At this point, negotiations are largely focused on thorny policy riders and divisive political issues, and largely taking place at the leadership level between the parties and the chambers. The Freedom Caucus recently called on House Speake Mike Johnson (R-LA) to dig in his heels and fight for maintaining polarizing issues in the final measure or adopting a year-long CR as an alternative. Historically though, final spending bills have been “clean” and avoided issues beyond funding. Moreover, political and process demands require that any final FY 2024 spending bill has strong bipartisan support to move forward.
The Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research, the Friends of AHRQ (FAHRQ), and other advocacy coalitions have already begun making their funding recommendation for FY 2025 (even though FY 2024 remains unfinished). The community’s request of a $3.6 billion increase for NIH to bring total annual funding up to $51.3 billion annually largely assumes the agency will be near level funded in any final FY 2024 measure. Similarly, the FAHRQ is asking for $500 million for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which mirrors the consensus request that was made for FY 2024.
It is important to note that FY 2025 community funding recommendations are presently being made in response to congressional office deadlines for submitting such feedback to advance the next appropriations process. These recommendations are being made without the benefit of final FY 2024 levels and without knowing the administration’s FY 2025 budget request to Congress, which is scheduled to be released on March 11th, following the March 7th State of the Union Address. Tweaks can certainly be made to any specific numbers that medical research and public health advocates are making moving forward, and leading organizations certainly seem more optimistic for positive outcomes through the FY 2025 process (as opposed to the protracted FY 2024 process).
By: Dane Christiansen, Washington Representative