Senate NIH Reauthorization Bill Contains New AIDS Provisions

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Life Science
January 27, 1993
SENATE N:[H REAUTHORIZATION BILL CONTAINS NEW AIDS PROVISIONS
A compromise move to forestall creation of an AIDS institute has resulted
in a provision in the Senate version of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) reauthorization that would establish the NIH Office of AIDS Research
(OAR) as "the overall management center for AIDS research at NIH."
The NIH reauthorization bill, S1, was voted out of the Senate Committee on
Labor and Human Resources, chaired by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-MA, yesterday
on a roll-call vote of 16 to zero.
Hill sources say pressure to establish an AIDS institute had met
opposition from committee members who feared creating an institute would
not serve the purpose of focusing the AIDS research effort. After
consulting with officials at NIH, the committee decided to "expand the
authority" of the Office of AIDS Research created in the committee's
original 1987 A:[DS bill. At the bills mark-up, Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-KA,
ranking minority member of the committee, commented that the provision
would "decrease the level of bureaucracy and duplication, not just work
toward a new institute."
Under the provisions of the bill OAR would have a full-time director
appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and responsible to
the NIH director, The secretary would also establish the OAR Advisory
Council to "replace the (current) AIDS Program Advisory Committee."
Together the OAR director and the council would devise and implement a
strategic plan for AIDS research.
As explained in the bill summary, research would continue to be performed
through the institutes, centers and divisions (ICDs) currently involved in
NIH AIDS research. The commitment base (funding) of ongoing research
grants and contracts, and intramural research would remain at the
discretion of the ICDs." However, appropriations committee sources were
unsure yesterday how the Office of Management and Budget or Congress would
divine a discrete AIDS research budget, since figures for AIDS research
have not been broken out in recent years at the appropriations level.
According to the language in the bill, the OAR director, with the council,
and after consulting with ICD directors, would prepare for the
administration an NIH AIDS budget request guided by the strategic plan for
AIDS research. The AIDS budget would be a professional judgement bypass
budget much like the budget of the National Cancer Institute, and AIDS
research funds appropriated by Congress would be passed through OAR to be
transferred to the ICDs.
The bill also would provide the OAR director a discretionary fund "not to
exceed 25 percent of the funds available in excess of the amount of
baseline AIDS research spending during the previous fiscal year." The fund

would be used to support "high priority research initiatives that could
not have been contemplated during the annual planning process or to fill
gaps in existing research. Awards made from the discretionary fund would
be subject to a second level of peer review by the OAR Council.