Highlights-
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) R&D portfolio, after climbing the
past two years thanks to emergency appropriations, would continue to increase
in both House and Senate plans for 2009. The House would give VA R&D an 8.7
percent increase over 2008 to $969 million in 2009, while the Senate would provide
a 5.7 percent increase to $942 million (see Table).
VA R&D in FY 2009 House and Senate Appropriations
On July 22, the Senate
Appropriations Committee approved its version of the FY 2009 Military Construction-VA
appropriations bill (S 3301) providing funding for the Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA) and some programs of the Department of Defense. In June, the House
Appropriations Committee drafted its own version (HR 6599), which the full House
approved overwhelmingly on August 1. The Senate bill contains $73 billion in 2009
discretionary spending, $3 billion more than the President’s request, while the
House bill contains just slightly less than the Senate version.
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.
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.
After including support costs, total federally funded VA R&D would be $969
million in FY 2009 in the House appropriation, well above both the 2008 budget
and the 2009 request for a $78 million or 8.7 percent increase over 2008 to $969
million. The Senate appropriation would provide slightly less, but the $942 million
Senate total would still be a 5.7 percent or $51 million increase over the current
year (see Table). 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 appropriations would be dramatic increases in
regular funding and could be boosted even further if Congress later adds on 2009
emergency appropriations. Both appropriations are in contrast to a request that
would cut VA R&D. (For more information on the VA 2009 R&D request, see
Chapter 12 in AAAS Report
XXXIII: R&D FY 2009, or the February 12 AAAS R&D
Funding Update.)
The
Senate would give the VA a general increase for its R&D programs, enough to
give most research areas an increase of at least 3.5 percent to cover inflation,
with an additional $30 million for new VA research in critical areas such as sensory
loss, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide prevention. The report accompanying
the Senate bill instructs VA to continue paying attention to Gulf War illness
research, and suggests nursing research, vision loss, geriatric care, and Lou
Gehrig’s disease as other areas worthy of special attention in the research portfolio.
The House would add even more money than the Senate, and encourages VA to look
at research areas such as acute trauma, mental illness, and substance abuse with
special relevance to the current veteran population.
VA
federal R&D flattened out mid-decade even as the overall VA budget grew (see
Figure 1), but the 2009 congressional appropriations could mark 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 have allowed VA R&D to show growth
again in recent years, while the 2009 House and Senate appropriations 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 approved its Military Construction-VA bill on August 1 before adjourning
for the month of August. The Senate did not debate its version of the bill before
the August recess, so it will likely consider it in September. Although most of the 12 2009 appropriations bills
will not be enacted before the October 1 start of FY 2009, there is a good chance
that the Military Construction-VA bill will get signed into law on time. President
Bush has threatened to veto any appropriations bills that exceed his request;
because both the House and Senate versions of this bill do so by nearly $3 billion,
there is a chance that he will veto a final version of the bill, but there are
expected to be enough votes to override a veto; the House version passed 409-4.
The VA R&D portfolio could be one of the few agency R&D budgets to be
finalized before the November elections.
(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.)
- August 1, 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
