NIAID ability to plan funding opportunities for extramural researchers ties into the budget planning cycle for each fiscal year.

Planning Research Opportunities

Like other NIH Institutes, NIAID must at times promote basic and applied research in scientific areas that pose an emerging opportunity or need.

Unlike many other Institutes, we must also respond to emerging diseases, such as MERS, West Nile virus, and pandemic flu, for which the public expects us to develop countermeasures.

We meet these needs by issuing requests for applications (RFA), program announcements (PA), or solicitations, some with money set aside for the grants or contracts.

Although much of our budget pays for investigator-initiated grants—i.e., PIs submit an application in a topic of their choice—a portion of our extramural dollars pays for targeted research. Keep in mind that even when we target funds for research in a scientific area, the investigator designs the project that meets NIAID programmatic needs.

• Targeted research supports grants and contracts and respond to these announcements.
  • Requests for applications. We fund RFAs from their own pot of money by setting aside funds to pay for the resulting grants.
  • Solicitations. Requests proposals for a contract to meet a specific need, such as the development of an animal model. Solicitations include requests for proposals (RFP) and broad agency announcements (BAA).
• NIAID also announces program announcements, initiatives that support investigator-initiated research. Most do not set aside funds, though some, called program announcement with set-aside funds do. In general, PAs cover a broader field than do RFAs.
• See the NIAID Budget and Concept Planning Flowchart for a graphic of the process.
• Learn how planning and approval works for initiatives at Concepts: Potential Opportunities.

Planning and Budget Cycle

Below we outline the federal government's annual budget process.

Congress Provides Direction and Funding

Public laws—bills or resolutions passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President—provide NIAID with the authority and funds to carry out programs.

They are called by their popular names, e.g., USA Patriot Act, and congressional sessions and chronological law numbers, e.g., P.L. 107-56.

Congress sets limits on the purpose for which NIAID spends funds, the amount of funds we spend, and the period of time when we can use or reserve funds. At least every three years, Congress passes authorizations that enable NIAID to spend money for designated programs. Title 42, Chapter 6A of the United States Code includes NIH authorizing legislation.

Congress funds NIH programs and operations in annual appropriations. Each NIH appropriations bill limits how federal grant, cooperative agreement, and contract funds can be spent. See NIH Appropriations Information for annual data.

NIAID Budget and Planning

Budgets, authorizations, appropriations, continuing resolutions: what does it all mean? It's a long and winding road from planning how to spend federal tax dollars to funding research grants.

Though Congress allocates our funds, agencies get the ball rolling well before a fiscal year starts. NIAID works on three budget cycles at a time.

Figure 1. NIAID's Budget and Concept Planning Flowchart

NIAID submits a budget request that moves up our chain of command for further tweaking, first to NIH and then to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The request includes an annual performance plan describing goals for the requested funds and a performance report of how last year's goals were met.

HHS forwards its request to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which reports to the President. OMB works closely with NIH and other agencies to create the budget the President proposes to Congress on the first Monday in February. After that, the President's Budget triggers the legislative side to act.

Before There's a Budget

In the beginning, there's authorization. Before a federal agency such as NIAID or NIH can spend money in any area, a congressional committee must authorize its program.

That means NIAID can't simply decide to award grants to design space vehicles! Our authorization has implications for politically sensitive areas too, such as restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research.

Budget Resolutions Lay a Foundation

Action starts in Congress after the President submits a budget request. Congress examines the President's Budget in detail but does not actually vote on it.

Meanwhile, House and Senate budget committees consider the President's Budget as they prepare their own budget resolution.

This legislation broadly outlines spending categories, targets, revenues, and spending estimates (also known as outlays) for the next fiscal year. It also guides the appropriations committees that set funding levels for federal agencies.

See Table 1 for the congressional committees and subcommittees with jurisdiction over NIH.

Table 1. Authorizations, Appropriations, and Oversight Committees and Subcommittees for NIH.

Appropriations Set the Dollars

Appropriations bills provide the budget authority to make financial obligations.

Setting funding levels is the job of the appropriations committees. Both House and Senate have 13 appropriations subcommittees that draft funding legislation for NIH and other federal agencies.

After Congress passes a budget resolution, the Senate and the House hold committee and subcommittee hearings on the proposed President's Budget. For example, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions authorizing committee and the Senate Committee on Appropriations hold hearings for NIH.

• At these hearings, they get analyses, information, and estimates of the budget and economy from the Congressional Budget Office.
• Agency representatives, such as the NIH director, must defend the President's Budget proposal at the hearings.

With this information, the two branches of Congress create their 13 appropriations bills (they may revise authorizing bills too).

The full appropriations committees may modify the bills before sending them to the Senate for a vote. The appropriations bills must reflect the congressional budget resolution.

Appropriations start each year in the House, with the Senate beginning its work after passage of a House bill. Funds from budget committees are divvied up to the appropriations committees as 13 separate budget bills.

To resolve differences between the Senate and House, bills go to 13 conference committees. Both bodies vote on each bill, and the President either signs or vetoes each one unless the budget goes through a reconciliation process.

In that case, authorizing committees resolve differences in conference. Both the House and Senate vote on a single bill and send it to the President by October 16. The President either signs or vetoes the bill.

When We Don't Get a Budget

Though the fiscal year begins on October 1, Congress often does not pass the budget by that date.

Congress usually passes a continuing resolution (CR) to tide us over for a few weeks or months while it irons out budget wrinkles. We often get a series of CRs that can last into January or later.

A CR often funds programs at the level of the previous fiscal year's appropriations or at the level of the bill either the House or the Senate passed for the current fiscal year, whichever is lower.

While under a CR, NIAID

• Can make only a limited number of new grant awards.
• May fund existing awards at a reduced level until the budget passes.
• Must fund our existing programs.
• Is prohibited by law from launching new initiatives or activities outside the scope of the existing authorization.

Finally... Funds

Working in reverse order from the budget request, OMB apportions funds to HHS, which allocates money to NIH. In turn, NIH forwards NIAID its share.

Our budget level determines our paylines and the number of awards we can make during a fiscal year. 

An agency may receive additional funds outside of the regular budget cycle.

Congress may approve a supplemental appropriation if it determines that an existing appropriation bill is insufficient or decides to fund activities not covered by the existing bill. In the past, NIAID has received supplemental appropriations to address issues such as flu pandemics or antimicrobial resistance.