Thursday, December 15, 2011

Health Provisions in Labor-HHS Appropriations Measure

As you are probably aware, the House introduced an omnibus appropriations bill early this morning; the Labor-HHS division of the bill can be found here.  A few policy points worth highlighting:

  • The bill includes a ban on HHS funding of needle exchange programs; according to the House Appropriations Committee, this provision had been included in the bill prior to Fiscal Year 2010.
  • The bill also includes a blanket ban on HHS funds being used “in whole or in part, to advocate or promote gun control.”  According to the House Appropriations Committee, this ban had previously been confined solely to Centers for Disease Control funds.
  • The bill rescinds $400 million from the co-operative grant program included in Section 1322 of Obamacare.  As you may recall, $2.2 billion of the original $6 billion in funding was rescinded in the six-month continuing resolution (P.L. 112-10).  This additional rescission means $3.4 billion in co-operative funding would remain available.
  • The bill rescinds $10 million of the $15 million in mandatory funding for the Independent Payment Advisory Board provided in Section 3403 of Obamacare.
  • The bill rescinds approximately $6.4 billion in performance bonuses created in the 2009 SCHIP reauthorization (P.L. 111-3).
  • The bill requires the Secretary to establish “a publicly accessible website to provide information” regarding funds spent in the Prevention and Public Health Fund created by Section 4002 of Obamacare.  Grants over $25,000 would have to be publicly identified within 5 days of award, and recipients would have to provide semi-annual reports on their activities.  Some Members have previously expressed concern first that this fund would be used to fund questionable projects like jungle gyms and bike paths, and second that this fund suffers from accountability problems due to the mandatory, auto-pilot nature of the spending.  The President’s September deficit submission proposed reducing spending on the Fund by $3.5 billion over ten years.
  • The bill also  contains several prohibitions on grant funding from the Prevention and Public Health Fund from being used “for publicity or propaganda purposes,” or to fund the salaries of lobbyists.  This section also includes a prohibition on Prevention Fund monies being used to promote tax increases or “the advocacy or promotion of gun control.”

A full summary featuring several top-line spending numbers for the Labor-HHS bill can be found on the appropriations website here.  One particular note of caution if you’re trying to analyze the bill itself:  The last section of the bill includes an across-the-board rescission of 0.189 percent, so the actual spending levels under the bill would be lower than the bill’s plain text.