Advocacy

Ramifications of the Budget Control Act of 2011

The Budget Control Act of 2011 was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on August 2, 2011. Below are highlights of how the Act affects family medicine education.

• For FY 2012, we are unsure what the funding levels for programs like Title VII will be. Due to a provision on the compromise bill that paid for the Pell Grant shortfall, appropriators now only have to find $2 billion instead of $11 billion, which could help funding levels for HHS programs like Title VII. The Appropriations bill remains in committee, but early allocations called for a 11.5% ($18 billion) cut than FY 2011 (which included the $11 billion for Pell Grants that is now mostly paid for). Overall though, early indications are that Title VII and other programs will not face severe cuts and should fare all right compared to other programs.
• In the long term, cuts to non-security discretionary funding, through recommendations of the 12-member super committee, could have a severe effect on Labor- HHS Education Appropriations funding, which includes programs such as Title VII and the National Health Service Corp, and agencies like Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• For the next ten years, the super committee is charged with finding more cuts to equal at least $1.2 trillion, meaning agencies like Health and Human Services and Health Resources and Services Administration, and programs like Title VII and the National Health Service Corp could face cuts.
• Newer sources of funding, such as the Preventative Health Trust fund (created by the Affordable Care Act), that have been used to supplement funding for programs like Title VII are a possible target for funding cuts or elimination.
  
  

• No immediate cuts to GME for FY 2012
• Medicare/GME are on the table for severe cuts by the 12-member super committee. Multiple commissions and advisory bodies, like the Simpson Bowles commission and GAO, have recommended Medicare GME as a source of savings in deficit reduction. Indications are that as much as $6 billion could be cut annually.
• If the super committee does not come to an agreement, Medicare providers are eligible for automatic across-the-board cuts, as are other discretionary domestic programs and defense spending.