The Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday overwhelmingly approved the Labor-HHS health spending bill for fiscal year 2017 with a vote of 29-1.
The bill is the first bipartisan Labor-HHS Appropriations Bill in seven years. It allots $161.9 billion in base discretionary spending for labor, health and education programs. Specifically, the bill includes a $2 billion funding boost for NIH and a 93 percent increase over last year's funds for opioid abuse and treatment programs.
The bill maintains funding for the Affordable Care Act, but defunds the law's Independent Payment Advisory Board, which was intended to find ways to cut Medicare spending if necessary.
For more details on what the law includes, here are 10 things to know about what the fiscal year 2017 health spending bill includes.
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