On March 23, Congress passed the second of two large packages of funding bills to complete the appropriations process for FY 2024. President Biden quickly signed the bills into law, avoiding a government shutdown as the last in a series of deadlines loomed. The passage of the appropriations bills occurred after several months of operating under continuing resolutions as Congress worked through disagreements over funding and policy.

Given the tight constraints of the budget deal reached between Congress and the White House last year, most government agencies and programs were expected to see modest increases, flat funding, or even cuts. In this context, we were pleased that the Lung Cancer Research Program, part of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs at the Department of Defense, held steady at $25 million.  

The National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute saw small increases in their base budgets compared to FY 2023. The NIH received $47.081 billion for FY 2024, an increase of $300 million. The NCI received $7.224 billion, an increase of $120 million. These figures represent the “discretionary” funding for these agencies appropriated by Congress. Under the 21st Century Cures Act, which was signed into law in 2016, “mandatory” funding has also been allocated to the NIH and some of its institutes for specific programs including the Cancer Moonshot. That law set specific amounts for those programs over the course of several years, separate from annual discretionary spending determined by Congress. Because the mandatory funding for programs such as the Cancer Moonshot ended in FY 2023, the NIH and the NCI actually saw a net decrease in their overall funding for FY 2024.  

Now that the FY 2024 process is complete, we will turn our attention to the FY 2025 process, which is just getting started. We will also continue to advocate for key legislation that would increase access to care for the lung cancer community, and we will need your help!