This week, the joint House and Senate conference committee charged with resolving differences between the Senate fiscal year (FY) 2019 health spending bill and the House version, finalized the bill, sending it to each chamber for final passage as part of an omnibus measure with the Department of Defense spending bill. The Health spending measure, known as the Labor-Health and Human Services bill (Labor-HHS), includes a $2 billion funding increase for the NIH, which would set FY2019 NIH funding at $39.1 billion. The bill does not include any policy riders on clean air, tobacco or the Affordable Care Act.

The Labor-HHS/Defense package is expected to pass each chamber, albeit with some opposition from House conservatives, and be signed into law by the President. All annual spending bills must either be passed by each chamber of Congress by the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30, 2018, or Congress must pass a short-term measure to keep government programs running.  If enacted by this date, this will be the first time since 1996 that the Labor-HHS bill has been completed before the start of the new fiscal year. 

Currently, most Congressional observers believe Congress and the President will avoid a government shutdown in the near-term but there remains an element of uncertainty and a potential for a government shutdown after the November midterm elections.