This week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House will vote on a temporary measure to fund government programs next week. Fiscal year 2020 funding for government programs is scheduled to expire on Sept. 30, 2020, so Congress and the Administration must enact temporary legislation to keep government programs operating for fiscal year 2021. The measure that congressional leaders and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin have so far agreed to would fund most government programs at current FY2020 funding levels. But congressional leaders and the Administration have not yet agreed on how long the measure will fund government operations, with the Administration favoring a December cutoff and Democrats pushing for the measure to extend to February 2021.

At the end of July, the House of Representatives, on a party-line vote, passed its FY 2021 health spending bill, which proposes a funding increase of about 13 percent for the NIH. Specifically, the bill provides $47.5 billion in total funding for the NIH in FY2021, a $5.5 billion increase over FY2020 NIH funding of $41.5 billion. This bill will serve as the House’s negotiating mark with the Senate. The Senate did not pass any FY2021 spending bills through committee, so the chamber does not have recommended numbers. The ATS Washington Office will continue to monitor the progress of FY2021 spending and alert members when their action is needed.