House VA-HUD Appropriations
Subcommittee Approves FY 2004 Spending Bill
July 18, 2003 - The House VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee
July 15 approved its version of the FY 2004 VA-HUD spending
bill, including a 2.7 percent increase for the Department
of Veterans Affairs (VA) research program, and a 6.2 percent
increase for the National Science Foundation (NSF). The full
House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the
bill on July 21; however, House floor debate on the bill will
reportedly not occur until September.
The Subcommittee provided $408 million for the direct costs
of research in the VA research program, an increase of $11
million (2.7 percent). The Subcommittee elected not to follow
the format of the President's budget, which had combined the
direct and indirect costs of research into a single research
line item. Appropriators chose to categorize VA Medical Care
funding into four new accounts: Medical Services for Priority
1-6 (service connected health needs) veterans ($15.8 billion),
Medical Services for Priority 7-8 (non-service connected health
needs) veterans ($1.9 billion), Medical Administration ($5.1
billion), and Medical Facilities ($4 billion). The total of
$26.8 billion the Subcommittee provided for Medical Care is
offset by $1.5 billion from the Medical Care Collections Fund.
This is approximately equal to the President's budget request,
which is an overall appropriated increase of $1.5 billion
(6.2 percent) over FY 2003 funding.
For the NSF, the subcommittee provided a total of $5.64 billion,
an increase of $329 million (6.2 percent) over FY 2003 funding.
This total includes $4.31 billion for NSF Research, an increase
of $250 million (6.2 percent).
Information:
Jonathan Fishburn, Director, Research, Education and Veterans' Legislative Affairs
AAMC Government Relations
jfishburn@aamc.org
(202) 828-0525
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