News ItemOmnibus Spending Bill Has Benefits for Biotech

December 19, 2015 – 

NM Bio Members and Friends: 

This morning, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a $1.15 trillion omnibus spending bill that will keep the government funded through September 2016. The spending measure passed easily by a vote of 316-113.  

The omnibus spending measure was sent to the U.S. Senate for consideration, coupled with the House passed Tax Extenders package (Thursday vote of 318-109), which was passed easily by a vote of 65-33. The President has said he will sign it this afternoon. 

Details of both legislative packages are below. 

Relevant Sections in the Tax Extenders Package: 

Medical Device Tax: Two-year delay of the tax, through 2018.  

Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit: The R&D Credit was made permanent. In addition, it was expanded to pre-tax startup companies by allowing them to use the R&D Credit against their payroll tax liability.  

Capital Gain Exclusion for Small Business Stock: The 100 percent exclusion of the capital gain on certain qualified small business stock was extended for two years (1/1/15 to 12/31/16).

Relevant Sections in the Omnibus Package: 

National Institutes of Health (NIH): The bill includes a program level of $32 billion for the NIH, $2 billion above the 2015 enacted level 

Food and Drug Administration (FDA): The FDA receives a total of $2.72 billion in discretionary funding in the bill, an increase of $132 million over the fiscal year 2015. Total funding for the FDA, including revenue from user fees, is $4.68 billion. 

Public Health Preparedness and Response:

* Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) received $511M and includes moneys for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CARB). 

* BioShield Special Reserve Fund (SRF) received $510 million, an increase of $255 million above FY2015

* Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) received $575M 

* Pandemic Influenza received $72M 

* Medical Countermeasures Inactive (MCMi) – $25M 

Click here for legislative text of the Omnibus bill

Click here for the legislative text of the Tax Extenders bill, click here for a section-by-section summary.