A bipartisan two-year spending agreement reached by Senate Republican and Democratic leaders would direct billions of dollars in new funds toward addressing the U.S. opioid crisis, advancing biomedical research and ensuring healthcare coverage for poor children.
The Senate and House are in a race to get the bill passed before the government shuts down on Feb. 9. The House on Feb. 6 passed a short-term continuing resolution intended to keep the government open until March 23, but the new two-year nearly $400 billion spending deal unveiled by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., would replace that legislation.
Under the bipartisan agreement, the sequester spending caps imposed in 2011 for defense and certain domestic priorities would be lifted for two years, the Senate leaders said.
Alongside a $165 billion increase over two years in defense spending, the budget deal would boost funding for domestic programs by $131 billion — $63 billion in fiscal year 2018 and $68 billion in fiscal year 2019.
The legislation would authorize $6 billion to fight the opioid epidemic, which is largely responsible for the 64,000 overdose deaths in 2016.
Sen. Maggie Hassan noted that she and the other Democrat from New Hampshire, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, fought to get the $6 billion into the budget bill.
"It will be critical that these new federal dollars are prioritized for states like New Hampshire that have been hardest hit by this crisis," Hassan said in a statement.
Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb have both vowed to make the opioid epidemic a top priority for 2018.
The National Institutes of Health, or NIH, has been waiting since May 2017 for government funds to get a public-private partnership off the ground aimed at accelerating the development of nonaddictive alternatives to opioids and better overdose-reversal agents. About three dozen companies have been meeting with the NIH and the FDA to hash out a plan of action, but drugmakers have been unwilling to commit until the government funds were secured.
The NIH would also get an additional $2 billion over the next two years intended for biomedical research — funds that would not remain at the agency but would be largely doled out in grants to the academic research community.
Children and seniors benefit
Under the bill, the Children's Health Insurance Program would be extended for an additional four years — adding to the six-year extension lawmakers passed in January under a short-term funding bill.
The added time would ensure the program, which provides coverage for about 9 million low-income children, would be secured for another decade, Schumer noted.
The New York lawmaker said the budget deal would also boost spending for several other healthcare programs "that we care a lot about in this country."
It would authorize $7 billion for community health centers, which serve over 26.5 million Americans.
Schumer said the Medicare Part D prescription drug "doughnut hole" — a coverage gap when seniors must pay out-of-pocket for their medicines — would be erased next year.
"We have waited long for this," Schumer declared.
The Senate bill also includes a package of health tax extenders.
Disaster relief
In addition, the budget deal would direct almost $90 billion toward disaster relief for Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which were devastated by three hurricanes last year — Harvey, Irma and Maria — and to a handful of U.S. western states hit by a barrage of wildfires.
"This recovery aid could not come a moment too soon," Schumer said.
The FDA has been working with biopharmaceutical and device manufacturers throughout the hurricane recovery in Puerto Rico to get their facilities back online to prevent drug shortages.
The medical products industry is critical to Puerto Rico's economy, representing about 30% of the island's GDP. The greatest hurdle companies confronted was a lack of sustained electricity after Puerto Rico's power grid was crippled by Maria.
But Gottlieb reported early last month that companies whose products are largely or entirely made in Puerto Rico that were on the agency's initial list considered critical and at risk of potential shortages were back on the power grid.
The agency has also been working to alleviate the intravenous saline solution shortage created by the disruption in manufacturing in Puerto Rico — a shortage exacerbated by the influenza outbreak in the U.S., which is experiencing the highest rate of flu-related hospitalizations the nation has ever seen.
