[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2658 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2658

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 the NIH had after the 
       historic doubling campaign that ended in fiscal year 2003.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 24, 2014

  Mr. Harkin introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
                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 the NIH 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 makes the following findings:
            (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 living longer and healthier. 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 153 new Food and Drug 
        Administration-approved drugs, vaccines, or new indications for 
        current drugs.
            (3) The application success rate is now at an all-time low. 
        From 1980 to 2003, the last year of the doubling, the grant 
        application success rate ranged between 25 and 35 percent. By 
        2013, the grant success rate had fallen to 16.8 percent.
            (4) Recent Federal funding cuts threaten to diminish United 
        States leadership in the world. The international community has 
        recognized the role biomedical research plays in generating 
        economic growth. England, China, Brazil, South Korea, India, 
        Singapore, Germany, France and Japan are increasing their 
        investment, despite the worldwide recession. Only the United 
        States has decreased its investment, from 0.215 percent of 
        Gross Domestic Product in 2003 (the last year of the doubling) 
        to 0.174 percent in 2013. In 8 years, if current trends 
        continue, China will surpass the United States in total 
        government biomedical research investment.
            (5) NIH is vital to the United States economy. In fiscal 
        year 2012, the NIH extramural program supported around 50,000 
        competitive research grants and 300,000 scientists and research 
        personnel at more than 2,500 universities, medical schools, and 
        other research institutions across our 50 States.
            (6) 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 $3,800,000,000 in 
        the Human Genome Project from 1988 to 2003 helped drive 
        $796,000,000,000 in economic output, which is a return of $141 
        for every $1 invested.
            (7) In 2013, sales of products built around licensed NIH 
        and Food and Drug Administration inventions included 358 
        licensees reporting a total of $7,000,000,000 in sales.
            (8) The historic doubling of Federal funding for the 
        National Institutes of Health ended in fiscal year 2003. Since 
        that time, NIH appropriations have not kept up with biomedical 
        inflation. NIH has lost more than 20 percent of its purchasing 
        power for medical research since 2003.
            (9) If NIH had kept up with biomedical inflation, NIH's 
        appropriation would have totaled $37,000,000,000 in 2013, 
        instead of the $28,900,000,000 that was actually appropriated, 
        a loss of $8,100,000,000 or 28 percent. To restore funding to 
        the 2003 post-doubling level would require Congress to 
        appropriate $46,500,000,000 in fiscal year 2021, the final year 
        of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-25).
            (10) 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 
        $200,000,000,000 each year but will rise to over 
        $1,000,000,000,000 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 
        $500,000,000,000 to current and future Americans. A cure for 
        cancer was estimated to save $50,000,000,000,000 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 
        $245,000,000,000 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 
        $1,208,000,000,000 between 2012 and 2030.
            (11) 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 2015, 
                                $3,000,000,000 in additional new budget 
                                authority;
                                    ``(II) for fiscal year 2016, 
                                $6,300,000,000 in additional new budget 
                                authority;
                                    ``(III) for fiscal year 2017, 
                                $8,100,000,000 in additional new budget 
                                authority;
                                    ``(IV) for fiscal year 2018, 
                                $10,000,000,000 in additional new 
                                budget authority;
                                    ``(V) for fiscal year 2019, 
                                $12,000,000,000 in additional new 
                                budget authority;
                                    ``(VI) for fiscal year 2020, 
                                $14,100,000,000 in additional new 
                                budget authority; and
                                    ``(VII) for fiscal year 2021, 
                                $16,300,000,000 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 $29,926,104,000, 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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