House and Senate budget conferees have passed a budget resolution for FY 2016 that effectively locks in sequestered spending caps mandated under the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011. The budget deal would, over ten years, cut non-defense discretionary spending $496 billion below the originally agreed BCA level by FY 2025. To bolster defense spending, funds were used from a dedicated fund,…

  ASPET supports the biomedical research community in expressing disappointment in funding allocations recommended by House Appropriations Committee. ASPET had cosigned a letter to the Committee urging that the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 302(b) allocation for the Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee be restored to at least the FY 2010 level of $163.6 billion.

  FASEB has released its latest publication in the Breakthroughs in Bioscience series. “The Human Microbiome: Your Own Personal Ecosystem” explores the multitude of microorganisms living in and on humans and how they affect health and disease. For more than three hundred years, scientists have observed, identified, and implicated individual microorganisms in specific diseases. More recently, with…

FASEB released its annual report presenting funding recommendations for five of the nation’s research agencies. “Investments in research have enhanced quality of life, developed novel treatments for devastating diseases, driven innovation, and created billion dollar industries,” stated FASEB President Joseph R. Haywood, PhD. “We are at a crossroads, and this funding report makes a statement about…

  Written Testimony of the American Society for Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics Submitted by:Annette E. Fleckenstein, MS, PhD President American Society for Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland 20814Submitted to:The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education & Related AgenciesFiscal Year 2016 Ap…

  The NIGMS strategic plan is now available at http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/strategicplan/NIGMS-strategic-plan.pdf. It outlines many of the goals, objectives, and implementation strategies that NIGMS will pursue over the next 5 years. It’s designed to serve as a framework to both codify and focus the institute’s activities, while still allowing for flexibility to pursue untapped opportun…

  Senate and House Budget Committees will start formulating their budget resolutions for FY 2016. The budget resolutions are merely spending blueprints and are not law. However, the budget resolution does establish top line spending limits for all discretionary spending. With strict budget caps in place due to the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) there is little wiggle room to expect the overa…

NIH Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, delivered a congressional testimony on the agency’s FY 2016 budget before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies earlier today. Read the full transcript of his testimony here.  

  ASPET members are encouraged to contact their U.S. Representatives and ask them to sign a “Dear Colleague” letter on NIH funding. The letter endorses both the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research’s and FASEB’s recommendation of “at least $32 billion” for NIH in FY 2016 – and is what our ASPET Washington Fellows will be messaging to their delegation during their Capitol Hill visits this spring.…

   One of ASPET’s coalition partners, the Coalition for Health Funding has prepared a primer on sequestration. “Sequestration 101” will tell what sequestration is and what it is not and will help any ASPET member understand whey spending today is at an all-time low. You can read view the CHF Sequestration 101 primer here.