Here comes the money?

The House voted 218-210 last week to approve a $2.8 trillion budget blueprint that would boost funding for HHS as well as the departments of Education and Labor, but does not include the Bush administration's request for $36 billion in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and a myriad of other social programs over a five-year period.

Though the House version still needs to be reconciled with one from the Senate, the resulting budget likely will be a big win for the healthcare industry, especially since the Senate version also is without the proposed cuts.

In budget negotiations, a group of House moderates won more than $7.1 billion in funding for fiscal 2007 for the departments of Labor, HHS, Education and related agencies appropriations bill. Rep. Michael Castle (R-Del.) and several other key House members won the additional funding after first calling for it back in March.

Richard Pollack, executive vice president of advocacy and public policy for the American Hospital Association, said the House resolution calls for the House Ways and Means Committee to free up $4 billion, but there are no indications that there would be any Medicare or Medicaid cuts.

Since March, members of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology peppered Congress with more than 15,000 letters urging the lawmakers to restore the $7 billion. "The additional money will allow appropriators to support (the National Institutes of Health) and the medical advances that are a direct result of their research grants," Jon Retzlaff, FASEB legislative director, said.

PHOTO (COLOR): Castle helped win $7 billion in funding.

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By Matthew DoBias