Late this week, the House of Representatives passed a package of several fiscal year (FY) 2021 spending bills including the bill funding the Veterans Administration and State Department and Foreign Operations (State-Foreign Ops). The House FY2021 VA spending bill includes $840 million for the VA Research program, a proposed increase of $40 million over the FY2020 funding level.

The State-Foreign-Ops spending bill includes funding for most global health programs. The bill proposes to flat-fund the USAID’s global tuberculosis (TB) program at the FY2020 level of $310 million for FY2021. The bill also includes language encouraging USAID to develop a new action plan to combat (MDR) multidrug resistant TB.  The House plans to vote next week on an omnibus FY2021 spending package that includes the health spending bill. The House’s FY2021 health spending bill proposes a $5.5 billion funding increase for the NIH.