Washington Wire

From ASRM News Winter 2007 Vol 40 No 4:

What to Expect from the 110th Congress

• With Democratic control of Congress for the first time since 1994, the landscape for reproductive medicine looks dramatically different in many ways. Ultimately though, the impact of this on the concerns of reproductive medicine will likely be less dramatic than we might hope for.

• Clearly, the biggest difference will be that we no longer have to fear Congressional efforts to ban or significantly impede ART-related techniques, or some methods of contraception. It seems clear that one of the factors in the November elections was a frustration with extreme ideological driven policies. While there is not a "pro-choice" majority in the Congress, there will be little interest in any moves to impede reproductive options. Instead, we will likely see efforts to increase federal support for contraceptive delivery, research and education. The ASRM will be an active advocate for what is being touted as the "prevention agenda."

• On the research funding side, things will get worse before they get better; and they probably won't get that much better. While the Democrats will be more favorably disposed towards domestic spending generally, there will be terrific competition for very limited dollars. All fields of science, but particularly the reproductive sciences, should expect to benefit from less ideologically driven funding decisions. 

• The 109th Congress never completed most of the funding measures for FY 2007. Rather than go through a complete budget process, the Democratic leadership has opted to pursue a continuing resolution. Included in this measure (which at press time had passed the House, but not the Senate) was an increase of approximately $600 million for the National Institutes of Health; that included $69 million in funds for the National Children's Study. 

• The landscape has changed for general health care policy as well. The pharmaceutical industry is already facing pressure on several fronts. The House has passed a bill to allow HHS to negotiate with industry on the costs of drugs in the Medicare prescription drug program. There are several proposals for increasing coverage for the uninsured, including the one made by the President in his State of the Union address. We are a long way from seeing a consensus emerge, but clearly health care is back in the policy mix.

• As part of the Democratic leadership's "first 100 hours" agenda, they passed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (HR 3) which would lift the Bush restrictions on federal funding for stem cell research. With 253 votes, the pro-stem cell vote increased by about 15 from the 109th Congress. Senate action is expected by spring. A veto is still expected, but there have been increasing efforts at some sort of compromise by a number of GOP Senators. Should the bill pass, be vetoed and that veto be sustained, there will likely be efforts to find other means to lift the president's restrictions on stem cell funding.

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