I 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5455 

To prioritize funding for the National Institutes of Health to discover treatments and cures, to maintain global leadership in medical innovation, 

and to restore the purchasing power which the National Institutes of 

Health had after the historic doubling campaign that ended in fiscal 

year 2003. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 10, 2018 

Ms. DELAURO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on the Budget 

A BILL 

To prioritize funding for the National Institutes of Health 

to discover treatments and cures, to maintain global leadership in medical innovation, and to restore the purchasing power which the National Institutes of Health 

had after the historic doubling campaign that ended in 

fiscal year 2003. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accelerating Bio5 medical Research Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) The National Institutes of Health (referred 

4 to in this section as the ‘‘NIH’’) is the leading bio5 medical research entity in the world. It supports re6 searchers in every State as they discover treatments 

7 and cures to prevent and reduce human suffering. 

8 Thanks in large part to NIH-funded medical re9 search, Americans today are healthier and living 

10 longer. Life expectancy in the United States has 

11 jumped from 47 years in 1900 to 78 years in 2009, 

12 and disability in people over age 65 has dropped 

13 dramatically in the past 3 decades. 

14 (2) Over the past 40 years, NIH-supported re15 search contributed to the discovery of over 150 Food 

16 and Drug Administration-approved new drugs, new 

17 vaccines, and new indications for current drugs. 

18 (3) The application success rate is below his19 toric averages. From 1980 to 2003, the last year of 

20 the doubling, the grant application success rate 

21 ranged between 25 and 35 percent. By 2016, the 

22 grant success rate had fallen to 19.1 percent. 

23 (4) NIH is vital to the United States economy 

24 and supports more than 400,000 jobs across the 

25 country. 


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1 (5) Economists have estimated the return on 

2 each dollar of investment in NIH to generate any3 where from $1.80 to $3.20 in economic output. The 

4 Federal investment of $3.8 billion in the Human Ge5 nome Project from 1988 to 2003 helped drive $796 

6 billion in economic output, which is a return of $141 

7 for every $1 invested. 

8 (6) The historic doubling of Federal funding for 

9 the NIH ended in fiscal year 2003. Since that time, 

10 NIH appropriations have not kept up with bio11 medical inflation. 

12 (7) If NIH had kept up with biomedical infla13 tion, NIH’s appropriation would have totaled $41.9 

14 billion in 2018, more than $4 billion than it re15 ceived. To restore funding to the 2003 post-doubling 

16 level would require Congress to appropriate $45.5 

17 billion in fiscal year 2021, the final year of the 

18 Budget Control Act of 2011 (Public Law 112–25). 

19 (8) High health care costs from a variety of 

20 common conditions threaten Federal, State, and 

21 local budgets, as well as the budgets of American 

22 families. Recent estimates indicate that the economic 

23 costs of Alzheimer’s disease is over $200 billion each 

24 year but will rise to over $1 trillion by 2050 unless 

25 a prevention or cure is found. In 2006, economists 


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1 found that a future 1 percent reduction in mortality 

2 rates from cancer would save $500 billion to current 

3 and future Americans. A cure for cancer was esti4 mated to save $50 trillion to Americans, more than 

5 3 times the gross domestic product of the United 

6 States in 2012. The Centers for Disease Control and 

7 Prevention reports that annual costs from undiag8 nosed diabetes was $245 billion each year. And a re9 cent study projects that by 2030, nearly 44 percent 

10 of the United States population will face some form 

11 of cardiovascular disease costing a total of $1.2 tril12 lion between 2012 and 2030. 

13 (9) Budget cap adjustments are how Congress 

14 traditionally prioritizes areas of spending that 

15 produce economic growth and reduce costs that con16 tribute to the Federal debt. 

17 SEC. 3. CAP ADJUSTMENT. 

18 Section 251(b)(2) of the Balanced Budget and Emer19 gency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 901(b)(2)) 

20 is amended— 

21 (1) by redesignating subparagraph (D) as sub22 paragraph (E); and 

23 (2) by inserting after subparagraph (C), the fol24 lowing: 


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1 ‘‘(D) NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF

2 HEALTH.— 

3 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—If a bill or joint 

4 resolution making appropriations for a fis5 cal year is enacted that specifies amounts 

6 for the National Institutes of Health at the 

7 Department of Health and Human Serv8 ices (75–9915–1–1–552), then the adjust9 ments for that fiscal year shall be the 

10 amount of additional new budget authority 

11 provided in that Act for such programs for 

12 that fiscal year, but shall not exceed— 

13 ‘‘(I) for fiscal year 2019, 

14 $5,000,000,000 in additional new 

15 budget authority; 

16 ‘‘(II) for fiscal year 2020, 

17 $7,000,000,000 in additional new 

18 budget authority; and 

19 ‘‘(III) for fiscal year 2021, 

20 $8,400,000,000 in additional new 

21 budget authority. 

22 ‘‘(ii) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this 

23 subparagraph: 

24 ‘‘(I) ADDITIONAL NEW BUDGET

25 AUTHORITY.—The term ‘additional 


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1 new budget authority’ means the 

2 amount provided for a fiscal year, in 

3 excess of $37,084,000,000, in an ap4 propriation Act and specified to sup5 port the National Institutes of Health. 

6 ‘‘(II) NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF

7 HEALTH.—The term ‘National Insti8 tutes of Health’ means the appropria9 tions accounts that support the var10 ious institutes, offices, and centers 

11 that make up the National Institutes 

12 of Health.’’. 

Æ 


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