[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5455 Introduced in House (IH)]
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115th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5455
To prioritize funding for the National Institutes of Health to discover
treatments and cures, to maintain global leadership in medical
innovation, and to restore the purchasing power which the National
Institutes of Health had after the historic doubling campaign that
ended in fiscal year 2003.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 10, 2018
Ms. DeLauro introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Budget
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prioritize funding for the National Institutes of Health to discover
treatments and cures, to maintain global leadership in medical
innovation, and to restore the purchasing power which the National
Institutes of Health had after the historic doubling campaign that
ended in fiscal year 2003.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Accelerating Biomedical Research
Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The National Institutes of Health (referred to in this
section as the ``NIH'') is the leading biomedical research
entity in the world. It supports researchers in every State as
they discover treatments and cures to prevent and reduce human
suffering. Thanks in large part to NIH-funded medical research,
Americans today are healthier and living longer. Life
expectancy in the United States has jumped from 47 years in
1900 to 78 years in 2009, and disability in people over age 65
has dropped dramatically in the past 3 decades.
(2) Over the past 40 years, NIH-supported research
contributed to the discovery of over 150 Food and Drug
Administration-approved new drugs, new vaccines, and new
indications for current drugs.
(3) The application success rate is below historic
averages. From 1980 to 2003, the last year of the doubling, the
grant application success rate ranged between 25 and 35
percent. By 2016, the grant success rate had fallen to 19.1
percent.
(4) NIH is vital to the United States economy and supports
more than 400,000 jobs across the country.
(5) Economists have estimated the return on each dollar of
investment in NIH to generate anywhere from $1.80 to $3.20 in
economic output. The Federal investment of $3.8 billion in the
Human Genome Project from 1988 to 2003 helped drive $796
billion in economic output, which is a return of $141 for every
$1 invested.
(6) The historic doubling of Federal funding for the NIH
ended in fiscal year 2003. Since that time, NIH appropriations
have not kept up with biomedical inflation.
(7) If NIH had kept up with biomedical inflation, NIH's
appropriation would have totaled $41.9 billion in 2018, more
than $4 billion than it received. To restore funding to the
2003 post-doubling level would require Congress to appropriate
$45.5 billion in fiscal year 2021, the final year of the Budget
Control Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-25).
(8) High health care costs from a variety of common
conditions threaten Federal, State, and local budgets, as well
as the budgets of American families. Recent estimates indicate
that the economic costs of Alzheimer's disease is over $200
billion each year but will rise to over $1 trillion by 2050
unless a prevention or cure is found. In 2006, economists found
that a future 1 percent reduction in mortality rates from
cancer would save $500 billion to current and future Americans.
A cure for cancer was estimated to save $50 trillion to
Americans, more than 3 times the gross domestic product of the
United States in 2012. The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention reports that annual costs from undiagnosed diabetes
was $245 billion each year. And a recent study projects that by
2030, nearly 44 percent of the United States population will
face some form of cardiovascular disease costing a total of
$1.2 trillion between 2012 and 2030.
(9) Budget cap adjustments are how Congress traditionally
prioritizes areas of spending that produce economic growth and
reduce costs that contribute to the Federal debt.
SEC. 3. CAP ADJUSTMENT.
Section 251(b)(2) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit
Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 901(b)(2)) is amended--
(1) by redesignating subparagraph (D) as subparagraph (E);
and
(2) by inserting after subparagraph (C), the following:
``(D) National institutes of health.--
``(i) In general.--If a bill or joint
resolution making appropriations for a fiscal
year is enacted that specifies amounts for the
National Institutes of Health at the Department
of Health and Human Services (75-9915-1-1-552),
then the adjustments for that fiscal year shall
be the amount of additional new budget
authority provided in that Act for such
programs for that fiscal year, but shall not
exceed--
``(I) for fiscal year 2019,
$5,000,000,000 in additional new budget
authority;
``(II) for fiscal year 2020,
$7,000,000,000 in additional new budget
authority; and
``(III) for fiscal year 2021,
$8,400,000,000 in additional new budget
authority.
``(ii) Definitions.--As used in this
subparagraph:
``(I) Additional new budget
authority.--The term `additional new
budget authority' means the amount
provided for a fiscal year, in excess
of $37,084,000,000, in an appropriation
Act and specified to support the
National Institutes of Health.
``(II) National institutes of
health.--The term `National Institutes
of Health' means the appropriations
accounts that support the various
institutes, offices, and centers that
make up the National Institutes of
Health.''.
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