Title: Accelerating Biomedical Research Act
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Accelerating Biomedical Research Act
This bill amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 to require certain adjustments to the annual discretionary spending limits for FY2019-FY2021 to accommodate increases in appropriations to the National Institutes of Health at the Department of Health and Human Services.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5455 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Accelerating Biomedical Research 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The National Institutes of Health (referred to in this 
        section as the ``NIH'') is the leading biomedical research 
        entity in the world. It supports researchers in every State as 
        they discover treatments and cures to prevent and reduce human 
        suffering. Thanks in large part to NIH-funded medical research, 
        Americans today are healthier and living longer. Life 
        expectancy in the United States has jumped from 47 years in 
        1900 to 78 years in 2009, and disability in people over age 65 
        has dropped dramatically in the past 3 decades.
            (2) Over the past 40 years, NIH-supported research 
        contributed to the discovery of over 150 Food and Drug 
        Administration-approved new drugs, new vaccines, and new 
        indications for current drugs.
            (3) The application success rate is below historic 
        averages. From 1980 to 2003, the last year of the doubling, the 
        grant application success rate ranged between 25 and 35 
        percent. By 2016, the grant success rate had fallen to 19.1 
        percent.
            (4) NIH is vital to the United States economy and supports 
        more than 400,000 jobs across the country.
            (5) Economists have estimated the return on each dollar of 
        investment in NIH to generate anywhere from $1.80 to $3.20 in 
        economic output. The Federal investment of $3.8 billion in the 
        Human Genome Project from 1988 to 2003 helped drive $796 
        billion in economic output, which is a return of $141 for every 
        $1 invested.
            (6) The historic doubling of Federal funding for the NIH 
        ended in fiscal year 2003. Since that time, NIH appropriations 
        have not kept up with biomedical inflation.
            (7) If NIH had kept up with biomedical inflation, NIH's 
        appropriation would have totaled $41.9 billion in 2018, more 
        than $4 billion than it received. To restore funding to the 
        2003 post-doubling level would require Congress to appropriate 
        $45.5 billion in fiscal year 2021, the final year of the Budget 
        Control Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-25).
            (8) High health care costs from a variety of common 
        conditions threaten Federal, State, and local budgets, as well 
        as the budgets of American families. Recent estimates indicate 
        that the economic costs of Alzheimer's disease is over $200 
        billion each year but will rise to over $1 trillion by 2050 
        unless a prevention or cure is found. In 2006, economists found 
        that a future 1 percent reduction in mortality rates from 
        cancer would save $500 billion to current and future Americans. 
        A cure for cancer was estimated to save $50 trillion to 
        Americans, more than 3 times the gross domestic product of the 
        United States in 2012. The Centers for Disease Control and 
        Prevention reports that annual costs from undiagnosed diabetes 
        was $245 billion each year. And a recent study projects that by 
        2030, nearly 44 percent of the United States population will 
        face some form of cardiovascular disease costing a total of 
        $1.2 trillion between 2012 and 2030.
            (9) Budget cap adjustments are how Congress traditionally 
        prioritizes areas of spending that produce economic growth and 
        reduce costs that contribute to the Federal debt.

SEC. 3. CAP ADJUSTMENT.

    Section 251(b)(2) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit 
Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 901(b)(2)) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating subparagraph (D) as subparagraph (E); 
        and
            (2) by inserting after subparagraph (C), the following:
                    ``(D) National institutes of health.--
                            ``(i) In general.--If a bill or joint 
                        resolution making appropriations for a fiscal 
                        year is enacted that specifies amounts for the 
                        National Institutes of Health at the Department 
                        of Health and Human Services (75-9915-1-1-552), 
                        then the adjustments for that fiscal year shall 
                        be the amount of additional new budget 
                        authority provided in that Act for such 
                        programs for that fiscal year, but shall not 
                        exceed--
                                    ``(I) for fiscal year 2019, 
                                $5,000,000,000 in additional new budget 
                                authority;
                                    ``(II) for fiscal year 2020, 
                                $7,000,000,000 in additional new budget 
                                authority; and
                                    ``(III) for fiscal year 2021, 
                                $8,400,000,000 in additional new budget 
                                authority.
                            ``(ii) Definitions.--As used in this 
                        subparagraph:
                                    ``(I) Additional new budget 
                                authority.--The term `additional new 
                                budget authority' means the amount 
                                provided for a fiscal year, in excess 
                                of $37,084,000,000, in an appropriation 
                                Act and specified to support the 
                                National Institutes of Health.
                                    ``(II) National institutes of 
                                health.--The term `National Institutes 
                                of Health' means the appropriations 
                                accounts that support the various 
                                institutes, offices, and centers that 
                                make up the National Institutes of 
                                Health.''.
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