Number range CHAPTERDEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH

Fiscal Year 2006 Budget Request

Witness appearing before the

House Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations

Dr. Elias Zerhouni

Director, National Institutes of Health

March 9, 2005

# William Beldon, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Budget

Number range CHAPTERDEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Statement by

Dr. Elias Zerhouni

Director, National Institutes of Health

on

Fiscal Year 2006 President's Budget Request

for the National Institutes of Health Buildings and Facilities Program

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

I am pleased to present the President's budget request for the Buildings
and Facilities (B&F) Program for FY 2006, a sum of \$81,900,000.

**ROLE IN THE RESEARCH MISSION**

State-of-the-science research and support facilities are a vital part of
the research enterprise. The National Institutes of Health's (NIH)
Buildings and Facilities (B&F) program designs, constructs, repairs and
improves the agency's portfolio of laboratory, clinical, animal,
administrative and support facilities at its six installations in four
states. These facilities house researchers from the NIH Institutes' and
Centers'(ICs) intramural basic, translational, and clinical research
programs; science administrators who oversee NIH's grants; the NIH
leadership, and various programs that support agency operations. The FY
2006 B&F budget request focuses on the need for responsible utilization
and stewardship of NIH's past and recent investments in the "bricks and
mortar" of the research enterprise. In order to stay abreast of the
changing needs of the NIH programs, it is imperative that we provide
reliable, safe and secure research support facilities that are
appropriately equipped, operated and maintained.

The B&F budget request is the product of a comprehensive, corporate
capital facilities planning process. This process begins with extensive
consultation across the research community and the NIH's professional
facilities staff. It works through the Facilities Working Group, an
advisory committee to the NIH Steering Committee, and the HHS Capital
Investment Review Board. Through this process, the program demand for
more effective and efficient facilities designed to support current and
emerging investigative techniques, technologies, and tools is integrated
with, and balanced against, the need to repair, renovate, and improve
the existing building stock to keep it in service and to optimize its
utility.

The FY 2006 request provides the necessary funding support for the
ongoing

safety, renovation and repair, and related projects that are vital to
proper stewardship of the entire portfolio.

The FY 2006 B&F budget request is organized among three broad Program
Activities: [Essential Safety and Regulatory Compliance,]{.underline}
[Repairs and Improvements and Construction]{.underline}. The FY 2006
request provides funds for specific projects in each of the program
areas. The projects and programs enumerated are the end result of the
aforementioned NIH facilities planning process and are the NIH's capital
facility priorities for FY 2006.

**FY 2006 BUDGET SUMMARY**

The FY 2006 budget request for Buildings and Facilities is \$81.9
million. The B&F request contains a total of \$14 million for [Essential
Safety and Regulatory Compliance]{.underline} programs composed of \$2
million for the phased removal of asbestos from NIH buildings; \$5
million for the continuing upgrade of fire and life safety deficiencies
of NIH buildings; \$1.5 million to systematically remove existing
barriers to persons with disabilities from the interior of NIH
buildings; \$0.5 million to address indoor air quality concerns and
requirements at NIH facilities; and \$5 million for the continued
support of the rehabilitation of animal research facilities. In
addition, the FY 2006 request includes \$66.9 million in [Repairs and
Improvements]{.underline} for the continuing program of repairs,
improvements, and maintenance that is the vital means of maintaining the
complex research facilities infrastructure of the NIH; and \$1 million
in [Construction]{.underline} for pre-project planning including concept
development studies and analyses of NIH-wide facility projects proposed
in the facilities plan.

> My colleagues and I will be happy to respond to any questions you may
> have.

Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D.

Director, National Institutes of Health

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NIH Director, Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., leads the nation's medical     |
| research agency and oversees the NIH's 27 Institutes and Centers with |
| more than 17,000 employees and a fiscal year 2004 budget of over \$28 |
| billion.                                                              |
|                                                                       |
| The NIH investigates the causes, treatments, and preventive           |
| strategies for both common and rare diseases helping to lead the way  |
| toward important medical discoveries that improve people\'s health    |
| and save lives. More than 80% of the NIH's funding is awarded through |
| almost 50,000 competitive grants to more than 212,000 researchers at  |
| over 3,000 universities, medical schools, and other research          |
| institutions in every state and around the world. About 10% of the    |
| NIH's budget supports projects conducted by nearly 6,000 scientists   |
| in its own laboratories, most of which are on the NIH campus in       |
| Bethesda, MD.                                                         |
|                                                                       |
| Dr. Zerhouni, a well-respected leader in the field of radiology and   |
| medicine, has spent his career providing clinical, scientific, and    |
| administrative leadership. President George W. Bush nominated him to  |
| serve as the 15th Director of the National Institutes of Health, and  |
| he began in May 2002. Since then, Dr. Zerhouni oversaw the completion |
| of the doubling of the NIH budget; initiated a strategic vision for   |
| the agency called the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research; established   |
| an NIH-wide research initiative to address the obesity; accelerated   |
| efforts in health disparities research; streamlined NIH's executive   |
| decision-making process; and named eight new Institute and Center     |
| Directors, and filled many other senior-level positions.              |
|                                                                       |
| Prior to joining the NIH, Dr. Zerhouni served as executive vice-dean  |
| of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, chair of the Russell  |
| H. Morgan department of radiology and radiological science, and       |
| Martin Donner professor of radiology, and professor of biomedical     |
| engineering. Before that, he was vice dean for research at Johns      |
| Hopkins. He became a member of the National Academy of Sciences       |
| Institute of Medicine in 2000.                                        |
|                                                                       |
| Dr. Zerhouni has won several awards for his research including a Gold |
| Medal from the American Roentgen Ray Society for CT research and two  |
| Paul Lauterbur Awards for MRI research. His research in imaging led   |
| to advances in Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT scanning) and       |
| Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) that resulted in 157 peer reviewed   |
| publications and 8 patents.                                           |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

Number range CHAPTERDepartment of Health and Human Services

Office of Budget

William R. Beldon

Mr. Beldon is currently serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary, Budget in
the Department of Health and Human Services. He has been a Division
Director in the Budget Office for sixteen years, most recently as
Director of the Division of Discretionary Programs. Mr. Beldon started
in federal service as an auditor in the Health, Education and Welfare
Financial Management Intern program. Over the course of more than 30
years in the Budget Office, Mr. Beldon has held Program Analyst, Branch
Chief and Division Director positions. Mr. Beldon received a Bachelor's
Degree in History and Political Science from Marshall University and
attended the University of Pittsburgh where he studied Public
Administration. He resides in Fort Washington, Maryland.