In Brief
House Passes a Debt Ceiling Hits and Runs Into a (Senate) Wall
On April 13, the Republican controlled House of Representatives celebrated its first 100 days in the majority. Yesterday they survived their first significant challenge – the debate and passage of the “Limit, Save Grow Act (HR 2811)” by the slimmest of margins 217 to 215” The bill raises the U.S. debt ceiling and enact spending cuts for fiscal year (FY) 2024 by $130 billion to fiscal 2022 levels, includes a cap on non-defense discretionary funding (which includes National Institute of Health and National Science Funding), freezes budget increases at a 1% growth for the next decade, enacts a GOP derived energy plan and claws back millions in unspent COVID-19 money.
At stake is a possible default on the U.S. government’s $31 trillion-plus debt looms just ahead. While the “X Date,” when the U.S. hits the debt ceiling, remains unclear speculation shows the date could arrive as soon as the first half of June. There are two legislative approaches when it comes to lifting the debt limit. Congress can lift it by a dollar amount or by a certain date. The “Limit, Save, Grow Act” would increase the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion, enough to avert a payments default until March 31, 2024. According to Speaker McCarthy, the measure would provide more than $4.5 trillion in savings to taxpayers. Estimates from BPS coalition partners estimate that the proposed reductions to discretionary spending could translate to a 22% cut to non-defense research spending. NSF, in response to a request by House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), stated these reductions “would result in the agency making approximately 2,200 fewer awards and able to support over 31,000 fewer researchers, students and others who are critical to our Nation’s science, engineering and technology enterprise.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has stated explicitly that the proposal is dead on arrival in the Senate and the White House also issued a statement opposing the legislation, demanding House Republicans pass a clean debt-limit increase first and negotiate spending separately.
May Markup Madness
House Appropriations Committee Chair Kay Granger has announced that the Committee will begin appropriations mark-ups beginning in May with floor action expected in June. Granger is still discussing total toplines for defense and non-defense discretionary spending with her colleagues, but she is not including Democrats nor the Senate in her conversations. Whatever is agreed to will also need to align with the House majority's goal of cutting significant spending back to FY22 levels.
Former NOAA Leaders to Testify on Agency Independence
House Science Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R-OK) held a hearing on Tuesday, April 18 in support of his legislative push to separate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from the Commerce Department and establish it as an independent agency. One of the goals Lucas has for his legislation is to reinforce scientific integrity at the agency. Several former Administrators testified at the hearing, including Conrad Lautenbacher, who served under President George W. Bush, as well as Tim Gallaudet and Neil Jacobs, who each served for periods as acting agency head during the Trump administration.
While Gallaudet strongly endorsed the idea of making NOAA an independent agency, citing the bureaucratic layer of the Department of Commerce, others have voiced concern that independence would diminish the clout NOAA can muster as a major agency within a Cabinet department. NOAA has been within the Commerce Department since its establishment a half-century ago, while a handful of other science agencies have been independent throughout their existence, including NASA and the National Science Foundation.
Biden Plans to Nominate Cancer Surgeon to Lead NIH
It is widely expected that President Biden will nominate Monica Bertagnolli, MD to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within the next week, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Francis Collins after twelve years of leadership. If confirmed by the Senate, Dr. Bertagnolli will take over the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world.
Biden appointed Dr. Bertagnolli as the 16th Director of NCI, which supports the majority of cancer research in the US, last August. She is a surgical oncologist with decades of clinical and leadership experience. Bertagnolli previously served as the Richard E. Wilson professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, as a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and as a member of the Gastrointestinal Cancer and Sarcoma Disease Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and her medical degree from the University of Utah School of Medicine.