Highlights-
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) R&D portfolio, after climbing the
past two years from emergency appropriations, would continue to increase in the
recently finalized 2009 VA budget. Congress would give VA R&D a 6.8 percent
increase over 2008 to $952 million in 2009 (see Table).
VA R&D in FY 2009 House-Senate Conference
Appropriations
On September 24, the House
of Representatives debated and approved a massive FY 2009 continuing resolution
(CR) funding federal government programs through March 6 but also containing $23
billion in disaster relief spending and three full FY 2009 appropriations bills,
including a final $73 billion Military Construction-VA appropriations bill with
funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). If the Senate and the President
agree, as expected, to the CR then VA will get a final FY 2009 budget next week.
Over the summer, the House and Senate reported separate versions of the bill;
the CR version represents a compromise between the House and Senate versions of
the bill even though there was no formal House-Senate conference. (For details
of VA R&D in the House and Senate bills, see the August
1 AAAS R&D Funding Update; for details of the President’s request for
VA R&D, see the February 12 R&D Funding Update
or Chapter 12 in AAAS Report
XXXIII: R&D FY 2009.)
The
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is one of the 10 largest R&D funding agencies
in the federal government, but receives relatively little attention because its
entire R&D investment goes to its own nationwide network of VA hospitals,
and because the VA R&D effort is a relatively small part of the nearly $50
billion total VA budget. VA’s Medical and Prosthetic Research is a longstanding
program of research aimed at improving health care for veterans through research
on injuries and illnesses with special relevance to veterans. All scientists and
engineers who receive VA funds must be VA employees, two-thirds of whom are clinicians-researchers.
The entire R&D investment takes place in VA hospitals and laboratories, although
many VA investigators hold joint appointments with academic institutions, and
much of VA research is collaborative with other institutions. More than half of
all VA research is for investigator-initiated research projects, with the remainder
a mix of centers of excellence, career development, and service-directed research.
After
including support costs, total federally funded VA R&D would be $952 million
in FY 2009, well above both the 2008 budget and the 2009 request for a $61 million
or 6.8 percent increase over 2008 (see Table). The
Medical and Prosthetic Research budget account is the core of VA’s research effort,
but it funds just a portion of VA’s total R&D, for support of direct R&D
costs in a $442 million request for FY 2009. Support costs, infrastructure, and
other indirect costs as well as the salaries of clinician-researchers who both
treat patients and perform research are funded out of other VA medical care accounts.
The final 2007 and 2008 funding levels include $33 million in 2007 and $69 million
in 2008 emergency appropriations for R&D related to Iraq
war veterans’ needs, so the 2009 appropriation would represent a dramatic increase
in regular, non-emergency funding.
The
large congressional increase should be enough to give most research areas an increase
of at least 6 percent, with Congress urging special attention to research on polytrauma,
sensory loss, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicide prevention, and women veterans
health issues, all issues with particular relevance to the nation’s veterans.
VA
federal R&D flattened out mid-decade even as the overall VA budget grew (see
Figure 1), but the 2009 final appropriation marks a third year of real growth.
After peaking in 2004, VA R&D fell in 2005 because of tough budgetary pressures
for domestic spending in general and veterans spending in particular. Emergency
appropriations in 2007 and 2008 allowed VA R&D to show growth again, while
the 2009 regular appropriation would confirm the upward trend. (Note: Years ago,
VA did not count support, salary, and infrastructure costs in its R&D. The
big jump in FY 1997 in Figure 1 represents VA’s decision to add in these costs
beginning that year.)
Figure 1. (click on the image for
PDF)
Outlook
and Next Steps
The
House quickly approved the continuing resolution (CR) containing the Military
Construction-VA bill on September 24 with little debate. If the Senate and the
President agree to the CR in the next few days, then VA will be one of the few
federal agencies to begin FY 2009 with a final 2009 budget, along with the Departments
of Defense (DOD) and Homeland Security (DHS).
(This
analysis is one of a series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates on FY 2009 congressional
appropriations. The complete series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates, including
continually updated analyses of R&D in FY 2009 appropriations, is available
on the AAAS R&D web site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd)
in the "FY 2009 R&D" or the "What's
New" sections.)- September 25, 2008
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy
Program
1200 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607
AAAS
R&D Web site: http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd
