Senate Committee Releases Legislation Including Funding Increases for Lupus Priorities in 2021

Earlier today, the Senate Appropriations Committee released its spending bills for fiscal year 2021 as congressional leaders look to complete their work to fund the government for 2021 before current funding expires on December 11. 

We are pleased to report that both the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) and the Department of Defense (DoD) spending bills include funding for critical lupus programs within the federal government.

The LHHS spending bill includes:

• $9.5 million for the National Lupus Patient Registry at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which would represent the third consecutive year Congress has increased funding for the program by $1 million;
• $2 million for the lupus program at the Office of Minority Health;
• $43.7 billion for the National Institutes of Health, the largest public funder of lupus research in the world, representing a $2 billion increase over the previous year.

The DoD spending bill includes lupus as a priority condition eligible for research funding through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program. This is consistent with how the Senate Appropriations Committee has acted in previous years, when they have gone on to accept the funding recommendations passed by the House of Representatives. The House earlier this year included $10 million for the Lupus Research Program in fiscal year 2021, which if enacted, would bring total funding for the program to $35 million in just five years.

For complete details about these programs, and to see how these numbers compare to what the House passed previously, click here.

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