Federal Focus - December 2011

The National MS Society is incredibly grateful to our strong and bold network of over 64,000 MS activists across the country who advocate year-round for policies that will improve the lives of people living with MS. We wish everyone a very happy holiday season and look forward to continuing to work together next year!

Society Submits Recommendations as Funding Levels are Finalized
Each year, Congress is tasked with passing the federal budget that funds federal departments, agencies, and programs. Through the federal budget cycle, funding levels for agencies and programs important to people living with MS like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and the National Institutes of Health are decided—which in turn, impact access to health and other services like respite care and the amount of funding available for MS research. This complex process is supposed to be completed each year by the start of the fiscal year—October 1—but in the recent past, has not been. Congress has instead passed what is known as a “Continuing Resolution” (CR) that maintains or "flat funds" programs to give Congress more time to complete appropriations.

The federal government is currently operating under one of these CRs that is in place through December 16. Over the next few weeks, Congress will be deciding whether to wrap remaining appropriations bills into a large package called an “omnibus” or pass another CR. Whichever path is selected, to help ensure that programs and services for people with MS receive adequate funding, the Society is sending a letter to Congressional leadership and appropriators to recommend robust levels for the following: MS research in the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a new program aimed at expediting development of effective drugs called the Cures Acceleration Network (CAN), the Lifespan Respite Care Program that supports family caregivers, and the Social Security Administration. Funding for another Society priority—the Food and Drug Administration—has already been finalized and fortunately received a $50 million increase over last year’s level.

With Fade-Out of the Super Committee, Across-the-Board Cuts Expected
As part of the agreement to raise the debt ceiling this past summer, Congress created the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, otherwise known as the ‘Super Committee.’ It was tasked with identifying $1.2 trillion in budget savings over the next ten years. The committee had a hard deadline of November 23 to bring forward a proposal but on November 22 the co-chairs announced they were unable to come to an agreement. Now all the focus is on what happens next.

Under the law, there will be automatic across-the-board cuts, known as sequestration, beginning January 1, 2013, to meet the $1.2 trillion over ten years target--with half of the cuts coming from defense spending and half from non-defense spending. Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare beneficiaries are exempt from these cuts but it is possible that cuts to administrative costs within those programs could make things like SSDI submissions longer to approve. The cuts impacting Medicare will hit the providers – they face up to a 2% reduction annually. Other areas of the budget important to people living with MS, like the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) could face significant cuts. The Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)--which fund high risk, high reward research including research into MS--may also be hit.

Congress could pass another law to alter the sequestration, or cancel it altogether, but President Obama has taken a hard-line stating that he would veto any effort to alter the Budget Control Act and the automatic cuts. The Obama Administration is likely hopeful that such a stance will get Congress back to the negotiating table to come up with a workable plan to achieve at least $1.2 trillion in savings. For more details on how sequestration will work, we urge you to read this