AAMC Letter on NIH Salary
Cap Sent to Full Senate and House Labor-HHS Subcommittee
September 20, 1999
The Honorable Arlen Specter
Chairman
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education
and Related Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
711 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Mr. Chairman:
The Association of American Medical Colleges respectfully
urges the subcommittee to raise the level of the salary cap
imposed in the annual appropriations bill on extramural scientists
supported by the National Institutes of Health.
The salary cap was first imposed as part of the Departments
of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act for FY 1990 [Public Law 101-166],
which stated:
None of the funds appropriated in this title for the National
Institutes of Health and the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental
Health Administration shall be used to pay the salary of
an individual, through a grant or other extramural mechanism,
at a rate in excess of $120,000 per year.
Similar language has been included in each subsequent Labor-HHS-Education
appropriation with two modifications. The limit was increased
in the FY 1992 appropriation to $125,000. Last year's Omnibus
Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act
[P.L. 105-277] linked the maximum salary to the Executive
Level III salary rate, which is currently $125,900.
This cap on extramural salaries is just one of a number of
steps by the federal government during the last decade to
increase its requirement for cost-sharing on federally financed
projects. This progressive shift of research costs to medical
schools comes at the same time that discretionary funds from
clinical revenue available to cover these costs have been
shrinking. Institutions are beginning to report difficulties
adding the financial support necessary to recruit and retain
top quality researchers. The situation is particularly critical
with regard to physician scientists.
Ironically, this is a situation that the NIH intramural community
faced a decade ago. One of the solutions Congress developed
to permit the NIH to recruit and retain high-quality scientific
investigators was the Senior Biomedical Research Service (SBRS),
which was established in November 1990 [P.L. 101-509; 42 U.S.C.
237]. Under the SBRS, the NIH can support up to 500 "individuals
outstanding in the field of biomedical research or clinical
research evaluation." [42 U.S.C. 237(b)] The salary for
members of the service cannot exceed Executive Schedule I,
which is currently set at $151,800.
The AAMC recommends that the subcommittee modify the NIH
salary cap language in the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations
bill as follows:
Sec. None of the funds appropriated in this Act
for the National Institutes of Health and the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration shall be used to
pay the salary of an individual, through a grant or other
extramural mechanism, at a rate in excess of the maximum allowable
under the Senior Biomedical Research Service.
Thank you for your attention to this important issue.
Sincerely,
Jordan J.Cohen, M.D.
|
