Key senator says HHS budget cuts 'not going to happen'

CQ NEWS

Feb. 25, 2020

Key senator says HHS budget cuts 'not going to happen'

Feb. 25, 2020 – 2:37 p.m. By Andrew Siddons, CQ

The senator who oversees funding for the Health and Human Services Department said Tuesday that Congress will once again reject some of the funding cuts proposed by the Trump administration in its fiscal 2021 budget request. 

Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said at a hearing that the panel would likely have to make some difficult decisions about making reductions to some discretionary health programs, but that President Donald Trump's proposed cuts to health care workforce training programs, medical research and other areas were “not going to happen.” 

Each year, the Trump administration has proposed funding cuts to popular HHS programs, and for the most part, Congress has provided more funding each year than what the administration sought.

For the last fiscal year, Blunt told HHS Secretary Alex Azar at the subcommittee hearing “the good news is you didn’t get what you asked for, and hopefully that will again be the case this time.” 

The Trump administration proposed a 9 percent, or $9.5 billion, discretionary spending cut to HHS in fiscal 2021, down from the $106 billion Congress provided in fiscal 2020. 

"Difficult decisions must be made to put discretionary spending on a sustainable path," Azar told the panel. He said the budget "cuts back on programs that lack proven results" in the department's portfolio.

Among the proposed spending reductions, the National Institutes of Health’s budget would be reduced from $40.3 billion to $37.7 billion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's budget would drop from $6.9 billion to $5.6 billion. 

A program known as "BioShield" that helps develop and procure medical supplies for health emergencies would see its funding drop from $735 million to $535 million. The budget request also calls for ending a $3.7 billion heating assistance program for low-income individuals that HHS administers.

But Blunt said he would be “very reluctant” to reduce funding for programs like that, though he acknowledged “we are going to need a little more money this year in my view than the topline number is going to give us,” he said, referring to the amounts that lawmakers agreed to spend overall in fiscal 2021 under a budget agreement (PL 116-37).

Added discretionary spending pressures could come from needs related to the coronavirus outbreak response, which has started to spread more rapidly beyond China. Administration officials are warning it will likely spread in the United States.

While the administration submitted a request to spend $2.5 billion to combat the COVID-19 outbreak for the rest of fiscal 2020, officials told lawmakers that they would likely ask for more in fiscal 2021.

Democrats have panned the administration’s proposed CDC budget cuts, while the administration counters that they would mainly affect programs focused on chronic disease and have requested extra funding for infectious disease and global health programs. 

On Tuesday, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, pressed Azar on whether the proposals should be rescinded. 

Azar acknowledged that as the outbreak continues, the administration could reconsider some of the cuts that it proposed for fiscal 2021. 

“We will work with you over the coming months as we learn more about this disease on whether to modify the 2021 appropriation request in light of that,” Azar replied. 

The bill page for the not-yet-introduced fiscal 2021 Senate Labor-HHS-Education spending measure is here.