FY 2003 Funding High Priority
for New Congress
December 13, 2002 - Completing the FY 2003 appropriations
process will be a major priority for the 108th Congress when
it convenes in January. At this time, only two of the 13 appropriations
bills that fund the federal government for FY 2003 have been
signed into law. The other 11 bills - including the Labor-HHS-Education
and VA-HUD-Independent Agencies bills - are currently being
funded through a continuing resolution (CR) that essentially
funds programs at FY 2002 levels through Jan. 11, 2003.
Following the election, Republican leaders from Congress
met with President Bush and agreed that FY 2003 discretionary
spending should not exceed $750 billion. Almost half of this
total has already been appropriated in the defense and military
construction bills, leaving $385 billion for non-defense discretionary
spending. However, the 11 remaining appropriations bills that
have been approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee
total $395 billion, which means that $10 billion needs to
be cut from these bills. On Dec. 3, the Senate leadership
revised the 302(b) allocations, which set the spending limits
for the individual subcommittees.
The Labor-HHS bill reportedly will lose approximately $2.8
billion from the $134.1 billion bill approved by the Senate
Appropriations Committee last July. While the President's
budget proposed a $3.7 billion (16 percent) increase for the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) to complete the five-year
doubling effort, it also proposed significant cuts in health
professions, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
(AHRQ), and portions of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention not related to homeland security. The situation
for the VA-HUD appropriations bill is similar to the Labor-HHS
bill; appropriators will have to cut between $2 and $3 billion
from the House and Senate bills they crafted earlier this
year.
Congressional leaders are currently discussing a strategy
to complete the FY 2003 appropriations process prior to the
President's State of the Union Address at the end of January.
This strategy calls for Congress to pass another CR prior
to Jan. 11, perhaps extending until late January. Reportedly,
the Senate Appropriations Committee will meet during the week
of Jan. 6 to approve the remaining 11 appropriations bills
at the newly revised levels. Although there is still discussion
of passing the bills individually, it is more likely that
the bills will be bundled into an omnibus package that will
be attached to yet another CR. The House and Senate would
then vote on this latter CR, which would be subject to limited
debate.
Information:
Dave Moore, Senior Associate Vice President
AAMC Government Relations
dbmoore@aamc.org
(202) 828-0525
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