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President Unveils Fiscal Year 2016 Budget

February 2015

This week, the President released his proposed budget for fiscal year (FY) 2016. We reported on the NIH and antibiotic resistance funding levels in our last update. Below are proposed funding levels for all other programs that the ATS monitors, including NIH institutes, CDC programs, EPA and some additional proposals, including tobacco taxes:

NIH

    • Proposed funding level of $31.3 billion for the NIH, a $1 billion or 3.3% funding increase over the FY2015 level of $30.3 billion.
    • Proposed funding of $3.072 billion for the NHLBI, a $76 million or 2.5% funding increase over the FY2015 level of $2.996 billion.
    • Proposed funding of $4.615 billion for NIAID, a $197 million or 4.4% funding increase over the FY2015 level of $4.418 billion
    • Proposed funding of $2.434 billion for NIGMS, a $61 million or 2.5% funding increase over the FY2015 level of $2.372.
    • Proposed funding of $682 million for NIEHS, a $14 million or 2.1% funding increase over the FY2015 level of $667 million.
    • Proposed funding of $1.318 billion for NICHD, a $31 billion, or 2.4% funding increase over the FY2015 level of $1.287 billion.
    • Proposed funding of $145 million for NINR, a $4 million or 2.8% funding increase over the FY2015 level of $141 million.

Included in the proposed FY2016 budget for NIH is $215 million for the "Precision Medicine" Initiative rolled out in the President's State of the Union address. Of this amount, the National Cancer Institute will get $70 million to study genes contributing to cancer risk and develop treatments. The bulk of the remainder of the funding, $130 million, will go to the Office of the Director for creation of a research consortium to study and sequence the DNA of a million patient volunteers.

CDC

    • Proposed funding level of $7.010 for the CDC, a $141 million or 2% funding increase over the FY2015 funding level of $6.869.
    • Proposed funding level of $135 million for CDC's domestic TB program, minus the Capital Working Fund (CWF), which is flat with FY2015
    • Proposed funding of $24.7 million for CDC's asthma program, which is flat with FY2015.
    • Proposed funding of $215.492 for CDC's tobacco program, which is flat with FY2015.
    • Proposed funding of $283.4 for CDC's National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOSH), a $51.4 million or 15.3% funding cut over the FY2015 level of $334.8. The budget proposes to eliminate NIOSH's Education & Research Centers, which include a focus on occupational medicine.

Antibiotic Resistance

    • $1.2 billion to combat antibiotic resistance, which breaks down to:
      • $650 million for the NIH and the Biomedical Advanced Research & Development  Authority (BARDA) for research on antibiotic resistance & new treatments.
      • $280 million for the CDC for surveillance, antibiotic stewardship and research
      • $47 million for FDA to support evaluation of new antibiotics
      • $85 million for the VA and $75 million for Department of Defense to address antibiotic resistance in these healthcare settings.

AHRQ

    • Proposed funding level of $479 million, a $14 million or 3.8% over the FY2015 level of $465 million.

EPA

    • Proposed funding of $8,591 billion for the EPA, a $452 million or 5.5% funding increase over the FY2015 funding level of $8,139 billion.
    • Climate change funding: $500 million to global Green Climate Fund – the first installment of Obama's $3 billion promise to help developing nations adapt to the effects of climate change.
    • $4 billion  Clean Power State Incentive plan – funding to assist states who take steps to go beyond GHG reductions called for by the pending EPA carbon regulations.

Global TB

    • Proposed funding of $191 million for USAID's global tuberculosis program, a $45 million or 19% funding cut from the FY2015 level of $236 million. This cut has been proposed for the past 3 years. Congress has restored the funding each year.

VA Research

    • Proposed funding of $622 million for VA Medical and Prosthetic Research.  An increase of $33 million over FY15 funding.  It also marks the first time the Obama Administration has recommended above inflation increases for the VA research program.

Tobacco Tax Proposal

    • Tobacco tax:  The President proposes to raise the federal excise tax on cigarettes and small cigars from $1.01 to $1.95 per pack.  Estimated to raise $95 billion over 10 years.  The funds would be used to support CHIP extension and universal access to pre-school.

The President's budget serves as a guideline for the congressional appropriations committees, who will begin drafting FY2016 spending bills within the next few months. We will keep you updated as the appropriations committees begin work on the FY2016 spending bills.

Last Reviewed: October 2017