This year the U.S. Congress, for the first time ever, specifically instructed the Nation Institutes of Health to spend more money on curing pulmonary hypertension. This major victory is a credit to the PPH Action Coalition members Sandy Silbermann and Martine Rothblatt, who walked the Congressional corridors and talked with countless Congressional staffers. Also to be thanked are the constituents from around the country, many of whom are not PPH patients, who spoke to their representatives on behalf of the Action Coalition.

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Calendar No. 589

104TH CONGRESS Senate Report

2nd Session 104-368

DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATION BILL, 1997

September 12, 1996- Ordered to be printed

Mr. SPECTER, from the Committee on Appropriations, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H.R. 3755]

The Committee on Appropriations, to which was referred the bill (H.R. 3755) making appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1997, and for other purposes, reports the same to the Senate with amendments and recommends that the bill as amended do pass.

Amount of budget authority
Amount of House bill: $285,217,745,000
Amount of Senate bill: $22,925,000
Total bill as reported to Senate: $285,194,820,000
Amount of adjusted appropriations '96: $263,772,305,000

Budget estimates, 1997: $293,595,292,000

The bill as reported to the Senate:

Over the adjusted approp. for '96: $21,422,515,000 Under the budget estimates for '97: $8,400,472,000

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Appropriations, 1996: $1,354,946,000
Budget estimate, 1997: $1,378,670,000
House allowance: $1,438,265,000
Committee recommendation: $1,403,557,000

The Committee recommendation includes $1,403,557,000 for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute [NHLBI]. This is $24,887,000 more than the administration's request, $48,611,000 more than the fiscal year 1996 appropriation, and $34,708,000 less than the House allowance. The comparable numbers for the budget estimate and the Committee recommendation include funds to be transferred from the Office of AIDS Research. The 1996 appropriation and the House allowance did not include an appropriation for the Office of AIDS Research.

Mission- The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute provides leadership for a national research program in diseases of the heart, blood vessels, lungs, and blood, in transfusion medicine, and in sleep disorders through support of innovative basic, clinical, population-based, and health education research.

Primary pulmonary hypertension [PPH]- PPH is a progressive fatal disease whose mostly female victims are of all ages and races, involves deadly deterioration of the heart and lungs, and literally robs these people of their very life's breath. The Committee urges the Institute to expand its support of research devoted specifically to PPH gene therapy, basic research, and clinical trials of promising pharmaceuticals