The House Appropriations Committee (HAC) has been busy marking up and advancing its fiscal year (FY) 2025 appropriations bills. SGO is specifically tracking developments related to our priorities included in the Labor, Health and Human Services (Labor-HHS), Agriculture-Food and Drug Administration (Ag-FDA), and Defense subcommittee bills.
On July 10, HAC approved the FY 2025 Labor-HHS spending bill, which includes 7 percent or $8.5 billion decrease in funding for the Department of HHS from FY 2024 funding levels. Here are some highlights:
- The bill includes a total of $48.6 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in FY 2025, the same funding level provided for the NIH and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) in FY 2024. Specifically, the bill restructures the NIH by consolidating the NIH’s 27 institutes and centers and ARPA-H into 15 new centers. HAC is essentially authorizing these changes without a thorough review by the Energy and Commerce Committee, which is the authorizing committee, and an opportunity for stakeholder input.
- The bill significantly cuts the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion programs by 20 percent, providing $1.15 billion in total funding. However, the bill does include small increases of 3%, 4%, and 1% for programs related to ovarian cancer, Johanna’s Law, and breast and cervical cancer, respectively.
- Positively, SGO was pleased to see that the report accompanying the Labor-HHS bill included our report language request. See below for the specific language.
Screening for Cervical Cancer with Human Papillomavirus Self Sampling.—The Committee is pleased that CMS has included its National Coverage Determination (NCD) for Screening for Cervical Cancer with HPV Testing on its wait list for reconsideration. Similar to the approval for self-sampling in other countries with organized screening programs, the National Cancer Institute’s ‘‘Last Mile’’ initiative will also determine the clinical effectiveness of self- collection-based HPV testing for screening to be considered for additional labeling by FDA after review. The Committee recognizes that self-sampling has the potential to reach individuals who are never screened or under-screened for HPV, which makes up about half of women who get cervical cancer in the U.S. Given the promise of HPV self-sampling, the Committee urges CMS to move this NCD up the wait list to ensure that there is appropriate coverage for this screening methodology upon FDA approval.
Additionally, the House recently approved the Defense appropriations bill by a vote of 217 to 198. The Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) were flat funded with the Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (PRCRP) and Ovarian Cancer Research Program receiving $130 million and $45 million respectively. While SGO’s request for an endometrial cancer line-item was not included in the final bill, the funds provided for the PRCRP are directed to be used to conduct research in multiple areas, including endometrial cancer.
In response to the national chemotherapy drug shortages, SGO worked with Representative Derek Kilmer (D-WA), Co-Chair of the House Cancer Caucus, to advocate for the inclusion of report language to address this critical issue. We were pleased to see that this language was included in the report accompanying the Ag-FDA subcommittee bill.
Quality Management Maturity (QMM).—The Committee is concerned about the ongoing impacts of drug shortages, particularly those for generic sterile injectable drugs, on patients and believes that a key driver of these shortages is the lack of resilient supply chains. While the FDA has piloted a QMM program and launched a voluntary QMM Prototype Assessment Protocol Evaluation Program, the Committee believes a robust QMM program is essential to ensuring product quality and enhancing supply chain reliability. The Committee is eager to learn the results of the current evaluation program and requests an update on this evaluation and an estimate of the cost to support a QMM program within 180 days of enactment.
Essential Medicines List.—The Committee is concerned by the ongoing shortage of commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs, including cisplatin and carboplatin. These shortages have hurt cancer care, including, in some cases, care rationing. Reliable access to chemotherapeutic drugs is essential to cancer care. The Committee is concerned that the FDA has only included a single chemotherapeutic drug on its FDA Essential Medicines list.
You can track these highlights and more in SGO’s FY 2025 Appropriations Tracker.
As expected, the House’s appropriations bills, particularly the Labor-HHS bill, have drawn sharp criticism from Democrats. While House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) aims to pass all 12 appropriations bills through the committee before the August recess, he has stated multiple times that he views these bills and their funding levels as a starting point for negotiations with the Senate. Through our advocacy, SGO is urging the House not to adopt a bill that restructures NIH without going through a public authorizing process and calling for Labor-HHS programs to receive at least a 1% increase in funding.
In the Senate, appropriators have begun marking up their bills and the committee approved 302(b) allocation levels for all twelve appropriations bills along party lines. Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) announced that the next markup session is scheduled for the week of July 22, but we do not yet know when Labor-HHS will be considered.
We will continue to keep SGO members updated as the FY 2025 appropriations process continues!