ASRM Washington Wire

President Bush issued his proposed budget for fiscal year 2007 which begins October 1. The $2.77 trillion spending plan emphasizes spending on homeland security while making significant cuts to programs in the area of Health and Human Services. Overall, HHS spending would be reduced by 2.3% from FY 2006 levels. The NIH is set to be flat-funded at the 2006 level of $28.6 billion. This amounts to a cut, contributing to a nearly 10% reduction in medical research spending, since 2003, in inflation-adjusted dollars.

One specific study proposed for elimination is the National Children’s Study, ordered by Congress and supported by medical groups and industry. The study would have tracked 100,000 children from gestation to age 21, examining the way environmental factors, such as pre-natal nutrition, exposure to pollutants and television, influence children’s health and development.
The President’s plan would cut spending for Medicare by $36 billion over five years including cuts in physician payments. While the budget does not include a 2007 payment update recommendation for physician services, it notes that the Administration is interested in physician payment reforms that would provide differential updates for quality reporting, but that such reforms should not increase overall Medicare spending or premiums.
In an attempt to ameliorate these proposed budget cuts at HHS, Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Tom Harkin (DIA) successfully offered an amendment to the budget bill to increase funding for health and education programs by $7 billion over the President’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2007. Senator Specter told the Washington Post that labor, health and education programs were cut last year by $2.1 billion and lost an additional $5 billion in buying power because of inflation. This amendment would restore funding to FY 2005 levels.
Following successful passage of the amendment in the Senate, Representative Mike Castle (R-DE) led the effort in the House of Representatives. A group of moderate Republicans, led by Mr. Castle, promised to withhold their votes for the budget unless the additional resources for health programs were included. Without their votes, the House has been unable (as of press time) to pass a budget bill.

Egg donation under scrutiny

This winter has seen several major media pieces on egg donation - most of them focusing on the “huge, unregulated payments” provided to donors. In addition, as a spillover from the stem cell debate, questions about egg and embryo donation for research continue to garner attention from the media and policy makers. The National Academies of Sciences, in their report on stem cell research last summer, called for policies that would prohibit any compensation of donors who provide ooctyes for research applications.
This call was taken up in Arizona where the house passed a bill that would have banned compensation for all egg donors. The sponsor claimed his real concern was cloning. ASRM and others weighed in and the Senate has amended the bill so that it now bans compensation only for donors who intend to donate for SCNT research.
In California, Prop 71, the 2004 ballot initiative to fund stem cell research, included language precluding compensation. Already we have seen efforts in the state legislature to extend that prohibition into clinical practice, as well as to prohibit physicians from being compensated for “related procedures” including egg retrieval. ASRM is working to modify or halt this legislation.

Stem Cells and Cloning

We are continuing to work with supporters in the Senate to pass HR 810 which has passed the House and would lift most of the administration’s restrictions on stem cell research. Senator Frist continues to voice his support for the measure, but the competition for time to bring legislation to the floor is very intense, and it’s not yet clear when a vote will occur.
In addition, we are fighting to prevent passage of several anti-research bills, including a bill to prohibit SCNT research and research of many uses of chimeras. The latter is beginning to build momentum after being mentioned by President Bush in the State of the Union address. Many states are active with a variety of measures.

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