Discretionary Spending
Function 550 - Health
Reduce or Constrain Funding for the National Institutes of Health
CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options (called Options for Reducing the Deficit) covering a broad range of issues, as well as separate reports that include options for changing federal tax and spending policies in particular areas. This option appears in one of those publications. The options are derived from many sources and reflect a range of possibilities. For each option, CBO presents an estimate of its effects on the budget but makes no recommendations. Inclusion or exclusion of any particular option does not imply an endorsement or rejection by CBO.
| Billions of dollars | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2015-2019 | 2015-2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restrict the Growth of Funding to 1 Percent a Year | |||||||||||||
| Change in Discretionary Spending | |||||||||||||
| Budget authority | 0 | -0.1 | -0.4 | -0.8 | -1.2 | -1.6 | -2.0 | -2.4 | -2.8 | -3.3 | -2.6 | -14.7 | |
| Outlays | 0 | * | -0.2 | -0.5 | -0.8 | -1.2 | -1.6 | -2.0 | -2.4 | -2.8 | -1.5 | -11.5 | |
| Reduce 2016 Funding and Allow Growth at the Rate of Inflation | |||||||||||||
| Change in Discretionary Spending | |||||||||||||
| Budget authority | 0 | -4.1 | -4.1 | -4.2 | -4.3 | -4.4 | -4.5 | -4.6 | -4.7 | -4.8 | -16.7 | -39.7 | |
| Outlays | 0 | -1.1 | -3.3 | -3.9 | -4.2 | -4.3 | -4.4 | -4.5 | -4.6 | -4.7 | -12.4 | -34.7 | |
Notes: This option would take effect in October 2015. Estimates are relative to CBO’s August 2014 baseline projections.
* = between -$50 million and zero.
In 2013, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) accounted for nearly half of all nondefense discretionary spending for research and development. (All years mentioned in this option are fiscal years.) This option consists of two alternatives that would reduce NIH’s appropriations relative to the amounts in the baseline budget projections of the Congressional Budget Office. One alternative would restrict the rate of growth in appropriations to 1 percent per year. The other alternative would reduce NIH’s 2016 appropriation by about 13 percent to the amount provided in 2003, the last year in which NIH had a large increase in its appropriation; after 2016, funding would grow at the rate of inflation incorporated in CBO’s baseline projections.