Statement by Research!America President and CEO Mary Woolley on the Completion of the FY19 Budget Process
Research!America welcomes the news that a bill has been signed into law that completes the Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 budget process and updates the resources available to such pivotal federal agencies as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
As the partial government shutdown and the stultifying effects of temporary funding measures so plainly demonstrated, Americans simply cannot afford the squandered time, money, and progress that budget gridlock breeds. For that very reason, the time for Congress and the Trump Administration to address the elephant in the room obstructing a functional FY20 budget process is now.
That means relegating to history the out-of-sync FY20 and FY21 “sequestration” budget caps and establishing a FY20 budget that is based on the best interests of Americans now. Faster medical, public health, and scientific progress meets that mark, and we look forward to working with congressional champions on both sides of the aisle to promote a bipartisan end to the sequestration caps and strategic growth in federal science agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), FDA and NSF.