Senate Bills - 110th Congress

S. 3689—Supplemental Appropriations for Job Creation and Preservation, Infrastructure Investment, and Economic and Energy Assistance for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2009, and for Other Purposes

On November 17, 2008, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV)) introduced S. 3689, a bill making supplemental appropriations for job creation and preservation, infrastructure investment, and economic and energy assistance for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, and for other purposes. Included in this bill is $1 billion for NIH, in addition to $25 billion in loans for automakers, and the proposed stimulus package which would include $37.8 billion for state Medicaid programs; $13.5 billion for infrastructure projects including highway repair, bridge construction, Amtrak and public transit; extended unemployment benefits; a tax break for car purchases; $700 million in grants for public-housing agencies; $2.5 billion for school repairs; $1 billion for border security programs such as building and repairing border stations and implementing new technologies on the southwest border; and $990 million for Justice Department grant programs to local law enforcement. The language included for NIH is identical to the previous supplemental and is as follows: “National Institutes of Health, OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR, (INCLUDING TRANSFER OF FUNDS), For an additional amount for ``Office of the Director'', $1,000,000,000, which shall be transferred to the Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health and to the Common Fund established under section 402A(c)(1) of the Public Health Service Act in proportion to the appropriations otherwise made to such Institutes, Centers, and Common Fund for Fiscal Year 2008: Provided, That funds shall be used to support additional scientific research and be available for the same purposes as the appropriation or fund to which transferred: Provided further, That this transfer authority is in addition to any other transfer authority available to the National Institutes of Health: Provided further, That none of these funds may be transferred to “National Institutes of Health--Buildings and Facilities,” the Center for Scientific Review, the Center for Information Technology, the Clinical Center, the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, or the Office of the Director (except for the transfer to the Common Fund).” The measure was expected to be taken up by the Senate on November 19, though that did not occur and the future of this measure is uncertain.