Over the past week, the Senate and House Appropriations Committees approved fiscal year (FY) 2019 health research and services spending bills that included funding increases for the NIH, making it very likely that the agency will see a robust funding increase for 2019. The House health spending bill includes a funding increase of $1.250 billion over current funding for NIH, for a proposed FY2019 level of $38.3 billion. The Senate bill includes a $2 billion increase over current funding for a proposal FY2019 level of $39.3 billion.  

Both the Senate and House health spending bills included congressional directives supporting the NHLBI’s implementation of the COPD National Action Plan.

Turning to the CDC, the House spending bill provides a $427 million increase for the CDC overall while the Senate bill’s allocation has not yet been released. Regarding CDC programs that the ATS monitors:

• Asthma: Both the House and Senate bills flat-fund the asthma program at current FY2018 funding of $29 million
• National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health: Both the House and Senate bills flat-funded NIOSH at current FY2018 funding of $335 million
• Tobacco Control: Both the House and Senate bills flat-funded the program at current FY2018 funding of $210 million
• Tuberculosis: Both the House and Senate bills flat-funded the program at current FY2018 funding of $142.2 million.

The path of the FY2019 House and Senate health spending bills is uncertain in this election year and it is possible that the spending bills will be used as leverage, as the President has already mused about shutting the government down. Congress and the President will need to agree on FY2019 spending by September 30, 2018, when the current fiscal year will expire. But regardless of the uncertain process, Congress will negotiate final NIH funding from the two differing bills, so the NIH allocations from both chambers are a strong indicator that NIH will receive a funding increase of at least $1.250 billion in FY2019.