Washington, DC Update

Posted 15 May 2017

President Trump’s Executive Order to restrict visitors from seven countries from entering the U.S. and temporarily halt the refugee resettlement program has resurfaced in court again. Read ASTMH’s statement. The latest court case before a federal appeals court in Richmond, VA, on May 8 saw the President’s campaign verbiage calling for a “Muslim Ban” used as evidence to bolster the case against the Executive Order.

Congress finally passed an omnibus-spending bill on May 4 to fund the government for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2017 (September 30). Included in this: NIH was funded at $34 billion ($2 billion above FY 2016), with NIAID funded at $4.9 billion ($276 million more than FY 2016) and the Fogarty International Center funded at $72 million ($1.76 million more than FY 2016). The CDC was funded at $7.2 billion. Within CDC, parasitic diseases and malaria were level funded at $24.5 million. Within USAID, the President’s Malaria Initiative received $755 million, an $81 million boost. 

An important point: this budget news is for the fiscal year the government is currently in, not the next fiscal year, which in the President’s ‘skinny budget’ calls for massive spending cuts to NIH, eliminates Fogarty, and also calls for steep cuts to the State Department as well as other agency cuts. 

The Administration is scheduled to release its full FY 2018 proposed budget, with details, in late May. The partial budget released in March and subsequent draft funding documents signal the President’s budget will call for significant cuts to global health programs. Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle have been outspoken in their opposition to such drastic funding cuts. ASTMH, along with a wide range of scientific organizations have been actively reaching out to Congress to bolster support for Fogarty and NIH broadly, CDC, PMI, and tropical medicine/global health.    

Scott Gottlieb was confirmed Commissioner of the FDA on May 10. Also that day, the Administration announced the nomination of Mark Andrew Green for Administrator of USAID. Green was previously a four-term Congressman from Wisconsin and more recently served as Ambassador to Tanzania from 2007-2009.
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