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January
2004
On
Monday, January 12, NORA held its monthly meeting. The topic of
this month’s meeting was the federal budget and appropriations
for fiscal years 2004 and 2005. The featured speaker was Craig
Higgins, Majority Clerk for the House Appropriations Committee
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.
Mr. Higgins provided the coalition with an overview of the current
status of fiscal year (FY) 2004 appropriations, as well as the
outlook for FY 2005. Although FY 2004 officially began on October
1, 2003, Congress has yet to finish its work on the FY 2004 federal
budget. The House passed the seven bill omnibus appropriations
package, which includes the Labor, Health and Human Services and
Education and Foreign Operations bills (the source for most of
the funding for global and domestic HIV/AIDS programs) before
recessing for the year in December; however, the Senate has yet
to vote on the bill.
Mr. Higgins said the current outlook for the omnibus package remains
unclear. There are several unrelated policy issues in the package
that are controversial, including new federal regulations on overtime
pay, changes in FCC policy regarding media ownership and provisions
on country-of-origin labeling for meat. The controversial nature
of these policy issues has led to suggestions that the bill may
be in for a fight in the Senate. In order to limit debate on the
bill, Senate leadership needs 60 votes to invoke cloture (an end
to debate) and force a vote. Right now, it remains unclear as
to whether they will have 60 votes in favor of cloture. However,
it is important to note that because the omnibus bill was agreed
to in conference with the House, the Senate cannot make changes
to the bill. Thus, for changes to be made, separate legislation
would have to be drafted and voted on. Currently, the federal
government is operating under a continuing resolution (CR) that
expires on January 31. Mr. Higgins also suggested that, if the
Senate is not able to come to an agreement on the terms of the
omnibus, Congress could pass a year-long CR, which would fund
programs at FY 2003 levels for the remainder of FY 2004.
In response to questions regarding FY 05, Mr. Higgins revealed
that next fiscal year is likely to be a year of “constrained growth.”
The department of Health and Human Services has indicated that
its priorities for 2005 will likely be pandemic flu, chronic diseases
such as diabetes and obesity, and global AIDS. However, they will
not know how this will impact funding until the President’s budget
is released next month.
Following Mr. Higgins presentation, NORA members heard an update
on the status of the FY 2005 NORA Appropriations document and
a status report on NORA’s working groups. The meeting concluded
with a brief presentation by Mark Del Monte and Laura Hanen of
the National AIDS Appropriations Group on the work that the group
is doing around FY 2005 appropriations.
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