March 17, 2006 - By a 73-27 vote, the Senate yesterday added
$7 billion in spending authority to a broad range of health
and human service programs as part of the FY 2007 budget resolution.
This would allow additional funding authority for FY 2007
spending legislation covering mental illness research and
services that will be taken up by Congress this coming summer.
The amendment is part of the budget resolution that sets forth
parameters for all federal spending for the fiscal year that
will begin on October 1, 2006. The Senate later cleared the
budget resolution by a narrow 51-49 margin.
Passage of the bipartisan Specter-Harkin Amendment is a big
victory for advocates of mental illness research and services.
It will allow for the FY 2007 appropriations bills that fund
the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to
reject cuts proposed in the President's budget and restore
funding to FY 2005 levels.
In addition, the Senate voted 43-57 to reject an effort to
require an additional $10 billion in cuts to the Medicare
and Medicaid programs for FY 2007. The underlying budget resolution
also rejected proposals in the President's budget for future
reductions to Medicare and Medicaid through cuts in payments
to hospitals and further reductions to targeted case management
services under Medicaid. This victory must now be followed
up in the House, which has yet to take up the FY 2007 budget
resolution.
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