We wanted to share with you some great news with you about funding for the Military Burn Research Program. Before Congress left Washington for the July 4th week, both the House and Senate made significant progress on our request.
On June 28th, the House of Representatives passed its version of the Fiscal Year 2018 defense appropriations. The House Committee on Appropriations committed $8 million to the Military Burn Research Program earlier in the month. Now the bill has been approved by the whole House.
Also on June 28th, the Senate Committee on Appropriations committed $8 million to the program. Now that the committee has approved the funding in their version of the defense appropriations bill, the bill moves to the full Senate for approval.
When Congress reconvenes the week of July 9th, we expect the appropriations process to continue to move forward without any major controversy. So far this year, the partisan infighting over contentious issues that we have observed in the past has been largely absent from the process, and all appropriations bills so far have been met with strong bipartisan support. After the Senate passes its defense bill, we expect the House and Senate to work quickly to resolve any differences in funding issues between the two bills and pass a final version before August.
We are excited that our advocacy efforts yielded support from both the House and the Senate for the Military Burn Research Program. We were particularly pleased this year that we had more Republican support than in years past.
When the Fiscal Year 2019 defense funding is wrapped up this summer, ABA will have successfully lobbied for 12 years of $75 million in total funding for burn research through the Department of Defense. Thank you for your efforts in making sure Congress supported burn care this year!
