House Subcommittee Advances FY25 HHS Spending Bill

The House Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Appropriations Subcommittee approved by voice voteon June 27 its fiscal year (FY) 2025 spending bill. The bill largely would preserve funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) while imposing new policy provisions, as well as cuts to health workforce and public health programs.

According to the bill text(PDF), committee-prepared summary(PDF), and accompanying summary(PDF)and fact sheet(PDF)released by committee Democrats, the bill would provide a total of $48.6 billion for NIH in FY 2025, the same total funding level provided for the NIH and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) in FY 2024. However, the bill also would impose a set of new structural and policy reforms for the agency, including consolidating the NIH's existing 27 institutes, centers, and ARPA-H into what the committee-prepared summary described as 15 new centers. The bill also would impose prohibitions on certain types of research and would cap reimbursement of facilities and administrative expenses for certain institutions.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would receive roughly $7.4 billion in total funding, a $1.7 billion (22%) decrease below FY 2024. The bill would eliminate funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The bill would include $7.4 billion for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a $647 million (8%) decrease below FY 2024 levels. Health workforce training programs would receive $1.3 billion, a $62 million (4.5%) decrease below the FY 2024 level. Additionally, the bill eliminates funding for the HRSA Title VII Centers of Excellence, the Health Careers Opportunity Program, and the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Program.

Other policy riders in the bill would prohibit funding for reproductive and gender-affirming health care, block efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, tie funding for institutions of higher education to actions they take regarding antisemitism, prohibit support for the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program, and block several current and proposed regulations regarding financial reporting for higher education institutions.