From Inside OME July/August 2008 - Vol. 2, No. 7/8 Legislative Updates
(Aug. 4, 2008) Congress and the President responded to urging by AACOM and other members of the health community to implement a moratorium on regulations that would eliminate $1.78 billion in Medicaid funding for graduate medical education. AACOM member colleges contacted their representatives in the House regarding the moratorium. The colleges urged them to ask House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey to include the moratorium on the proposed Medicaid regulations in the emergency supplemental spending bill. By signing the FY 2008 Supplemental Appropriations Act into law, the President delayed implementation of these detrimental regulations until April 2009, when a new administration will be in office.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had proposed rules that would have limited how Medicaid funding could be used. By prohibiting this regulatory action, Medicaid funds will continue to support teaching hospitals charged with training new physicians. The legislation also places a moratorium on other regulatory actions that would have cut Medicaid funding for safety net providers. The only proposed rule that was not included in the moratorium would narrowly define hospital outpatient services.
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From the National Council for Science and the Environment via the SLA Biomedical & Life Sciences Division’s dbio list. RELEASED: Thursday, July 31, 2008
(Washington) - Today Congress passed all provisions of the Higher Education Sustainability Act (HESA) as part of the new Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HR 4137). HR 4137, expected to be signed into law shortly by President Bush, creates a pioneering “University Sustainability Grants Program” at the Department of Education. It will offer competitive grants to institutions and associations of higher education to develop, implement and evaluate sustainability curricula, practices, and academic programs.
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specter-floor-statement.doc
Thursday, March 13, 2008: The U.S. Senate voted 95 to 4 in favor of adopting the “Specter/Harkin” amendment to the Senate’s fiscus year (FY) 2009 budget resolution. This amendment authorizes an additional $2.1 billion for NIH in FY 2009. This would bring the agency’s total potential funding level up to $32.2 billion. This is an important first step to increasing NIH funding. Click on the link above to read Senator Specter’s floor statement.
March 11, 2008: Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) announced they will offer an amendment to the Senate FY09 Budget Resolution (Senate Resolution 70) which would provide significant new funding for NIH. Their amendment would authorize an additional $2.1 billion for the NIH in FY09, bringing the agency’s total funding level up to $32.2 billion. The House and Senate appropriations committees would still have to provide this additional funding, but including it in the budget resolution is a significant first step. A vote on the Specter/Harken amendment could occur anytime within the next few days - PLEASE contact your two U.S. Senators and do the following:
1 - Identify yourself as a constituent and ask to speak with your Senator’s health legislative assistant;
2 - Make the case for addititonal funding - remind your Senators that NIH has been flat-funded in recent years;
3 - Ask your Senators to vote YES on the Specter/Harken amendment to increase funding for the NIH in the FY09 budget resolution.
4 - Give the aide your contact information and ask t be kept informed of your Senator’s actions.
If you do not know who your two U.S. Senators are, please visit: http://www.senate.gov or call the Senate switchboard at 202-224-3121.
President Bush signed the FY 2008 omnibus package at the end of December 2007. The package provides funding for 11 appropriations bills, and retains the provision that makes the NIH publish access policy mandatory. Section 218 of the bill states, in part: ’The Director of the NIH shall require all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to NLM’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication, provided that the NIH sshall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.’
Division F of the bill provides $3 million for funding for restoration of the EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the Administration and directs the Agency to submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations regarding actions it will take to restore publicly available libraries to provide environmental information and data to each EPA region within 90 days of enactment of this Act.
Division G of the bill: $29.23 billion for the NIH, and increase of $328.85 million over FY 2007 and $607.3 million more than requested by President Bush.
$329 million for the National Library of Medicine, a decrease of $608 thousand below FY 2007 and $8.4 million more than requested by President Bush. $263.5 million for the Institute of Museum & Library Services, an increase of $16.3 million over FY 2007 and 7.75 million below the President’s request.
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