In Brief
Sign-Up to Meet with Your Elected Officials at Home
Members of Congress will be spending more time at home this year preparing for the November elections. Beginning in August, Congress will work in the district for five weeks, making meeting with them even more accessible. BPS can help you arrange meetings for you and your colleagues to meet in person or via video this summer and fall.
We are in the midst of the FY23 federal appropriations process and there is precious little legislative time ahead for Congress to reach an agreement on a new budget and fund the much-needed federal grants that support your research. Meet with your Members of Congress this summer, invite them to your lab to see first-hand what you do. Let them know that basic and biomedical research relies on predictable, robust and sustained funding for federal grant-making agencies. Sign up now!
Advocate for NIH Funding for FY23 in Washington, DC
Join the Biophysical Society and other organizations supporting the mission of the National Institutes of Health in the 2023 Rally for Medical Research in Washington, DC on September 13-14. Registration is now open for the annual Rally for Medical Research fly-in where you will meet with your elected officials and advocate on behalf of making National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding a national priority. This event, established in 2013, includes more than 300 national organizations coming together with a focused message on increasing NIH funding and raising awareness about the research it supports. Please email Leann Fox at [email protected] to learn more.
Apply for the BPS 2023-2024 Congressional Fellowship
Interested in using your science skills to inform science policy? Does spending a year working on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, helping develop policy sound exciting? The Biophysical Society’s Congressional Fellowship program is your opportunity to participate directly in the process of law-making that impacts how research is funded and regulated. This year-long opportunity provides fellows a chance to utilize their science knowledge to inform the public policy process. Fellows will gain firsthand knowledge and experience on how Congress works, and participate in the esteemed AAAS Science and Technology Fellows program that provides ongoing training and networking opportunities during the fellowship year and beyond. Visit the website for more details about the program or contact Leann Fox at [email protected] or (240) 290-5606. The application deadline is December 13, 2022.
Fiscal Year 2023 Appropriations Headed to House Floor
House Appropriators completed their framework for fiscal year (FY) 2023 at the close of June. While the House set its mark below that of the White House in its proposed budget and may indeed prove to be an easier life in a short legislative session with the November elections looming ahead. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) fare better under the House framework. The proposed White House budget had the bulk of the 7% increase directed toward the newly created Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), leaving the individual Institutes flat funded or facing a cut in funding in the case of the National Cancer Institute. The House plan allows for an overall increase of 5.6% or $47,459 billion for NIH, with each Institute receiving a 3% increase in funding. ARPA-H will receive just over half of what the White House had proposed, but it will not be at the cost of ongoing basic and biomedical research. BPS, along with our coalition partners, continue to advocate for a more robust budget of $49,048 billion. The National Science Foundation (NSF) sees an increase of 9%, which would raise funding levels from the $8,838 billion of FY22 to a proposed $9,631 billion. The Department of Energy Office of Science will see an increase of 7% or $8 billion over FY22 levels. The House had initially set a target date for the week of July 25 for a Floor vote, but chances of that may be slipping to after the August Recess period.
Coalition Funding Request Levels FY23
(Funding shown in millions; % change from FY22)
| |
FY22 Approved |
FY23 WHI Req |
FY23 House |
FY23 Coalition* |
| NIH |
$44.959 |
$48.957 (+7%) |
$47.459 (+5.6%) |
$49.048 billion |
| ARPA-H |
$1.000 |
$5.000 (+400%) |
$2.750 (+175%) |
--- |
| NIGMS |
$3.092 |
$3.098 (+2%) |
$3.200 (+3%) |
---- |
| NSF |
$8.838 |
$10.492 (+19%) |
$9.631 (+9%) |
$11 billion |
| DOE/Office of Science |
$7.475 |
$7.779 (+4%) |
$8.000 (+7%) |
$8.8 billion |
*This column reflects the FY23 funding requests supported by BPS and its coalition partners to support various grant funding opportunities through multiple federal agencies.
House Moves to Remove ARPA-H from NIH Organizational Structure
On June 23 the House overwhelmingly passed the “Advanced Research Project Agency – Health Act (HR 5585) by a vote of 336 to 85 to remove the new agency from within the organization structure of NIH and make it a true stand-alone agency. The initiative, championed by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA-18), would countermand Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra’s decision to establish ARPA-H as an independent agency within the NIH. While there continues to be support for the mission of high-risk, high-reward research for health the House vote shows an opinion that the agency should truly be independent and not distract from the work being done by NIH.