2020

Home ▶ Washington Letter ▶ 2020 ▶ Senate Appropriators Release 2021 Health Funding Proposals
Senate Appropriators Release 2021 Health Funding Proposals

This week, the Senate Appropriations Committee released its FY2021 proposed spending bills, including funding for NIH and other health programs. The Senate FY2021 health spending bill includes good news for NIH – the bill proposes a $2 billion funding, or about a 4.8 percent increase for NIH over the FY2020 funding level. The Senate and the House will now negotiate between the House-passed spending bills and the Senate appropriations committees bills to finalize FY2021 spending. Congress and the current administration must finalize FY2021 spending by Dec. 11, 2020 when the current government spending measure expires.

The details for all of the programs that the ATS monitors are not yet available, but we can report the following proposed funding levels for NIH and other programs:

  • A proposed $2 billion funding increase for NIH, for a total funding level of $43.4 billion in Fy2021, and $1.5 billion over the House’s proposal.
  • A minor funding increase of $130 million, or about 1.6 percent for the CDC, for a proposed FY2021 funding level of $7.824 billion, and roughly $100 million less than the House bill’s proposed funding level for the agency.
  • $9.1 billion for EPA, a proposed increase of $28 million over FY 2020 and about $290 million less than the House-passed bill.
  • Proposed elimination of funding for CDC’s Climate and Health program, $15 million less than the House bill, and $10 million less than the FY 2020 amount
  • Flat funding for CDC’s asthma program at $30 million and $3 million less than the House bill.
  • $230 million for Office on Smoking and Health, level-funded from FY 2020 and $10 million less than the House bill.
  • Flat funding for CDC’s domestic and global TB programs for proposed funding levels of $135 million and & $7.2 million respectively.
  • $343.8 million for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health at CDC, an increase of $1 million over FY 2020.
  • Flat funding for the VA Research program for a proposed FY2021 level of $800 million, $40 million below what the House bill has proposed for FY2021.
  • A proposed $15 million increase for USAID’s global TB program for total FY2021 funding of $325 million.
Last Reviewed: November 2020