Government Affairs Home > Washington Highlights > March 15, 2002

House Panel Approves FY 2003 Spending Plan

March 15, 2002 - Following the President's lead, the House Budget Committee March 13 passed an FY 2003 budget resolution that focuses heavily on defense and homeland security and provides a less than inflation increase for domestic discretionary programs. The $2.158 trillion spending plan calls for $759 billion in discretionary spending, a 7 percent increase. Defense would get $392.7 billion (a 13 percent increase) and non-defense programs would receive $366.3 billion (a 1.3 percent increase). The budget doubles funding for homeland security to $38 billion, including $5.9 billion to counter bioterrorism.

The budget resolution notes it assumes $27.2 billion - a $3.6 billion increase - to complete the 5-year doubling of the NIH budget. However, the budget also assumes only a $2.6 billion increase in overall discretionary health spending. The budget also includes a reserve fund for Medicare reform and prescription drugs that provides $5 billion in FY 2003 and $350 billion over 10 years.

The committee rejected a number of amendments by Democrats, including proposals to increase funding for education and prescription drugs.

The full House is expected to consider the budget plan before the Easter recess, scheduled to start March 22. The Senate Budget Committee is scheduled to begin work on its version of the budget during the week of March 18.

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