NIH Funding: FY1994-FY2017

February 24, 2016 (R43341)

Contents

Figures

Tables

NIH Funding: FY1994-FY2017

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary federal agency charged with conducting and supporting biomedical and behavioral research. Its activities cover a wide range of basic, clinical, and translational research, focused on particular diseases, areas of human health and development, or more fundamental aspects of biomedical research. Its mission also includes research training and health information collection and dissemination.1 About 81% of the NIH budget funds extramural research through grants, contracts, and other awards.2 This funding supports research performed by more than 30,000 individuals who work at more than 2,500 universities, hospitals, medical schools, and other research institutions around the country.3 About 19% of the agency's budget supports clinical and basic research, performed by NIH physicians and scientists in the NIH Clinical Center and laboratories, as well as personnel training and facilities maintenance and construction.4

Funding for NIH comes primarily from the annual Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill, with an additional amount for Superfund-related activities from the Interior/Environment appropriations bill. Those two bills provide NIH's discretionary budget authority.5 In addition, NIH receives mandatory funding of $150 million annually that is provided in the Public Health Service (PHS) Act for a special program on type 1 diabetes research and funding from a PHS Act transfer. The total funding available for NIH activities, taking account of add-ons and transfers, is known as the NIH program level.

Table 1 outlines NIH program level funding over the past 24 years, and Figure 1 illustrates funding trends in both current (also called nominal dollars) and constant (i.e., inflation-adjusted) 2015 dollars. Between FY1994 and FY1998, funding for NIH grew modestly from $11.0 billion to $13.7 billion in nominal terms. Over the next five years, Congress doubled the NIH budget to $27.2 billion in FY2003. In each of these years, the agency received annual funding increases of 14% to 16%. Since FY2003, however, NIH funding has increased more gradually in nominal dollars. Funding peaked in FY2010 before declining in FY2011 through FY2013 with small increases in subsequent years.6 In some years, funding for the agency decreased in nominal dollars. For instance:

The NIH program level in FY2016 is $32.311 billion, which includes $77 million for Superfund-related research and the $150 million in diabetes funding.8 The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (H.R. 2029, P.L. 114-113), provides $32.084 billion for NIH in Division H (the Labor/HHS and Education appropriations act): $31.304 billion for the NIH institutes and centers plus $780 million in funding via the PHS Act transfer.9

For FY2017, the Obama Administration requests an NIH program level total of $33.136 billion, an increase of $825 million (2.6%) over FY2016. The FY2017 program level request for NIH includes $150 million in mandatory funding for research on type 1 diabetes and $77 million for Superfund-related research. The FY2017 program level request also proposes $847 million in funding transferred to NIH by the PHS Act transfer and $1.825 billion in additional mandatory funds. The FY2017 request includes $755 million for the Vice President's Cancer Moonshot; $680 million is allocated for the National Cancer Institute at NIH, and $75 million is transferred from NIH to the Food and Drug Administration.

The lower half of Figure 1 portrays NIH funding adjusted for inflation (in constant 2015 dollars) using the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI).10 It shows that the purchasing power of NIH funding (non-ARRA) peaked in FY2003 (the last year of the five-year doubling period) and has steadily declined in the years since. In constant 2015 dollars, the FY2017 level funding is 19.2% less than the FY2003 level.

Figure 1. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Funding, FY1994-FY2017

Program Level Funding in Current and Constant (2015) Dollars

Sources: NIH Budget Office, Appropriations History by Institute/Center (1938 to Present), at http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/approp_hist.html. FY2015, FY2016, and FY2017 amounts are from Department of Health and Human Services, Fiscal Year 2017 Budget in Brief, Washington, DC, February 9, 2015, p. 51, http://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fy2017-budget-in-brief.pdf. Inflation adjustment reflects the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI), updated January 2016, http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/gbiPriceIndexes.html.

Notes: Program level includes all budget authority including appropriations for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (FY2002-FY2011) that were subject to transfer-out. As of FY2012, NIH no longer receives appropriations for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) identifying resources for the Global Fund; this responsibility was transferred to another federal agency. Excludes other transferred amounts from HHS accounts, such as the PHS Act transfer (evaluation tap). ARRA supplementary funding is from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, P.L. 111-5. FY2015 amount does not include $238,000,000 for the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for research on Ebola that was provided in P.L. 113-235, Title VI of Division G.

Table 1. NIH Funding, FY1994–FY2017

Program Level Funding in Current and Constant (2015) Dollars (billions)

Fiscal Year

Program Level

% Change

Program Level Constant 2015 $

% below 2003

1994

$10.956

  

$21.038

  

1995

11.300

3.1%

20.972

  

1996

11.928

5.6%

21.585

  

1997

12.741

6.8%

22.433

  

1998

13.675

7.3%

23.288

  

1999

15.629

14.3%

25.799

  

2000

17.841

14.1%

28.391

  

2001

20.459

14.7%

31.510

  

2002

23.321

14.0%

34.768

  

2003

27.167

16.5%

39.125

  

2004

28.037

3.2%

38.927

-0.5%

2005

28.594

2.0%

38.215

-2.3%

2006

28.560

-0.1%

36.481

-6.8%

2007

29.179

2.2%

35.908

-8.2%

2008

29.607

1.5%

34.806

-11.0%

2009

30.545

3.2%

34.888

-10.8%

2010

31.238

2.3%

34.626

-11.5%

2011

30.916

-1.0%

33.316

-14.8%

2012

30.861

-0.2%

32.836

-16.1%

2013

29.316

-5.0%

30.619

-21.7%

2014

30.142

2.8%

30.816

-21.2%

2015

30.311

0.6%

30.311

-22.5%

2016

32.311

6.6%

31.583

-19.3%

2017 request

33.136

2.6%

31.626

-19.2%

NIH Funding including ARRA Supplement

2009

35.499

  

40.546

  

2010

36.684

  

40.663

  

Source: NIH Budget Office, Appropriations History by Institute/Center (1938 to Present), at http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/approp_hist.html. FY2015, FY2016, and FY2017 amounts are from Department of Health and Human Services, Fiscal Year 2017 Budget in Brief, Washington, DC, February 9, 2015, p. 51, http://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fy2017-budget-in-brief.pdf. Inflation adjustment reflects the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index (BRDPI), updated January 2016, http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/gbiPriceIndexes.html.

Notes: Amounts in table may differ from actuals in many cases. By convention, budget tables, such as Table 1 do not subtract the amount of transfers from the agencies' funding. Program Level includes all budget authority, including appropriations for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (FY2002-FY2011) that were subject to transfer-out. As of FY2012, NIH no longer receives appropriations for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) identifying resources for the Global Fund; this responsibility was transferred to another federal agency. ARRA supplementary funding is from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, P.L. 111-5. FY2015 amount does not include $238,000,000 for the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for research on Ebola that was provided in P.L. 113-235, Title VI of Division G.

Author Contact Information

[author name scrubbed], Specialist in Biomedical Policy ([email address scrubbed], [phone number scrubbed])

Acknowledgments

LaTiesha Cooper, Research Assistant, assisted with the preparation of the table and figure included in this report.

Footnotes

1.

For further information on NIH, see CRS Report R41705, The National Institutes of Health (NIH): Background and Congressional Issues, by [author name scrubbed].
2.

Department of Health and Human Services, Fiscal Year 2017 Budget in Brief, Washington, DC, February 9, 2015, p. 47, http://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fy2017-budget-in-brief.pdf.
3.

Ibid.
4.

Ibid.
5.

NIH received a total of $10.4 billion in supplemental, one-time FY2009 appropriations in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 (P.L. 111-5). ARRA funds were made available for obligation for two years; $4.95 billion was obligated in FY2009, and $5.45 billion in FY2010. CRS Report R43304, Public Health Service Agencies: Overview and Funding, coordinated by [author name scrubbed].
6.

Amounts shown in Table 1 include appropriations for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (FY2002-FY2011) that were subject to transfer-out. As of FY2012, NIH no longer receives appropriations for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) identifying resources for the Global Fund; this responsibility was transferred to another federal agency. For further details on the amounts transferred out by fiscal year, see the "Supplemental Appropriation Data Table" for "History of Congressional Appropriations, Fiscal Years 2000-2012" at http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/approp_hist.html.
7.

The FY2012 amount of $30.861 billion appears to be 0.2% below the FY2011 amount of $30.916 billion. However, the FY2011 amount includes $297.3 million that was subject to transfer-out for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.

8.

Superfund amount provided by Division G of P.L. 114-113, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016. Mandatory funds for type 1 diabetes research (under PHS Act §330B) provided by P.L. 114-10 for FY2016 and FY2017.
9.

NIH and other HHS agencies and programs authorized under the PHS Act are subject to a budget assessment called the PHS Program Evaluation Set-Aside, also called the evaluation tap. Section 241 of the PHS Act (42 U.S.C. §238j) authorizes the Secretary of HHS to use a portion of eligible appropriations to study the effectiveness of federal health programs and to identify improvements. Although the PHS Act limits the evaluation tap to no more than 1% of eligible appropriations, in recent years the annual Labor/HHS/ED appropriations act has specified a higher amount (2.5% in FY2015 and FY2016) and directed specific amounts of funding from the evaluation tap for transfer to a number of HHS programs. The set-aside has the effect of redistributing appropriated funds for specific purposes among PHS and other HHS agencies. NIH, with the largest budget among the PHS agencies, has traditionally been the largest "donor" of program evaluation funds and, until recently, a relatively minor recipient. For FY2015, although NIH contributed an estimated $700 million to the tap, it received $715 million under P.L. 113-235, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, an increase over the $8.2 million NIH received in FY2014 and prior years from the transfer. P.L. 113-235 allocated the entire $715 million to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), offsetting the more than $700 million reduction in discretionary budget authority for NIGMS in the law compared with its FY2014 funding level. By convention, budget tables such as Table 1 do not subtract the amount of the evaluation tap from the donor agencies' appropriations.
10.

The index is developed each year for NIH by the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the Department of Commerce. It reflects the increase in prices of the resources needed to conduct biomedical research, including personnel services, supplies, and equipment. It indicates how much the NIH budget must change to maintain purchasing power. See "NIH Price Indexes," at http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/gbiPriceIndexes.html.