On July 19, 2007, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3403, the Fiscal Year 2008, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Appropriations bill (Labor-HHS appropriations).
The bill passed by a vote of 276-140. The House Labor-HHS bill spends $151.7 billion in discretionary funding, exceeding President Bush’s $140.92 billion request for the same programs. This funding number does not include Social Security, Medicare, and other mandatory programs for which the federal government is already committed to funding.
The Labor-HHS appropriations bill determines the funding level for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- the largest source of Parkinson’s disease research funding in the world. The bill proposes a total of $29.65 billion which is 2.6% above the current funding level. This modest but appreciated funding increase is short of the 6.7% NIH funding increase that PAN, in conjunction with NIH-funding coalitions, has supported for the upcoming fiscal year.
The Senate version of this bill passed full committee on June 21. The full Senate has not yet taken a vote on its bill but is expected to by August 3. President Bush has threatened to veto any of this year’s spending bills that exceed his request making the House bill a likely veto target.
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