NEI/NIH Funding

House LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee Marks Up its FY2022 Spending Bill

Update: On July 15, the full House Appropriations Committee approved the FY2022 LHHS funding bill by a vote of 33-25 with two amendments made to the bill. The vote came after four hours of debate on an amendment related to abortion services. The full House of Representatives plans to take up a 'Minibus' bill comprising 7 of the individual appropriations bills, including the LHHS bill, during the week of July 26

On July 12, the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) Appropriations Subcommittee approved along party lines its Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 spending bill, which provides $253.8 billion—an increase of $55.2 billion or 28 percent—above FY2021. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is funded at $119.8 billion, a $22.9 billion or 24 percent, and $129 million below President’s Biden’s request. 

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funded at $49 billion, which is a $6.5 billion increase reflecting a $3.5 billion, or 8.2 percent increase to NIH’s base for a funding level of $46.2 billion to support at least a 5 percent increase for each Institute and Center (I/C) and $3 billion for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Health (ARPA-H) proposed by the President. In a separate section, the bill states that ARPA-H funding, which would be available through September 30, 2024, shall only be made available if “legislation specifically establishing ARPA-H is enacted into law.”  On June 22, House Energy & Commerce Committee members Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Fred Upton (R-MI) issued a discussion draft for potential 21st Century Cures Act 2.0 legislation that would include establishment of ARPA-H.   

The NEI is funded at $877.1 million, a $41.4 million or 5 percent increase over FY2021, reflecting 2.4  percent biomedical inflation and 2.6 percent growth. Although the proposed FY2022 NEI funding level is less than the $900 million that NAEVR requested (but greater than the $858 million proposed by the President), the proposed NIH base funding level reflects the biomedical research advocacy community’s request of “at least $46.1 billion.” As a result, NAEVR issued a statement commending the Subcommittee for the bill, which is scheduled for full House Appropriations Committee markup on July 15.

The Senate has not yet approved its top- line spending level or allocations for each its twelve spending bills.