Senate Committee Adopts FY 2010 Labor-HHS Appropriations Bill - August 3, 2009

On July 30, the Senate Appropriations Committee adopted the Fiscal Year Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS) appropriations bill. The bill, which the full Senate must now consider, provides a total of $163.1 billion in funding for discretionary programs, slightly more than the $160.7 billion provided in comparable legislation which passed the House on July 24. Of note, the bill provides a $46 million increase in funding for nursing education (in contrast to a $92 million increase under the House bill), and a $442 million increase for NIH (in contrast to a $942 million increase under the House bill). Similar to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill passed by the House, the Senate bill also provides significant increases—a $113 million increase for a total of $311 million—for CMS’ Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control activities.