September 26, 2018 – The Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research issued the following statement in response to House passage of the House-Senate conference agreement on H.R. 6157, which includes the fiscal year (FY) 2019 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) spending bill, and funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research applauds the House of Representatives for passing the conference agreement on the FY 2019 Labor-HHS appropriations bill and continuing Congress’s steadfast commitment to medical research supported by the NIH.
In addition to providing the hope of better health to millions of patients, NIH funding advances science, innovation, and economic growth. Marking four years of notable funding increases for the NIH, the $2 billion increase for FY 2019 keenly reflects the sustainable, predictable growth above inflation necessary to realize the invaluable promise of new cures, diagnostics, preventions, and treatments offered through NIH.
We are grateful to House Appropriations Committee leadership, including Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), Subcommittee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.), and Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-Ct.), for their longstanding support for NIH and their dedication to timely passage of this important legislation. We celebrate their efforts, in partnership with their Senate counterparts, to deliver a bipartisan, bicameral final package that invests in key national priorities, as facilitated by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.
The Ad Hoc Group urges the President to sign the package before October 1. Enacting the spending bill by the start of the new fiscal year will enable NIH to be even more strategic in its investments and will provide fiscal certainty to the agency, NIH-funded researchers, and the patients across the country that rely on them.
*****
The Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research is a coalition of over 300 patient and voluntary health groups, medical and scientific societies, academic and research organizations, and industry. The Ad Hoc Group has one mission: to enhance the federal investment in biomedical, behavioral, social, and population-based research by increasing the funding for the National Institutes of Health.