NCI Budget Requests

Quick Facts

FY = Fiscal Year

To check the status of budget requests for FY 2012, visit the Library of Congress’s Thomas Web site and look under “Labor/HHS/Education,” or "Continuing Appropriations," or "Continuing Resolution."

For your reference: A detailed view of how NCI’s annual budget process works. See also the American Association for Cancer Research's diagram of the federal budget process.

NCI’s Budget Request — Professional Judgment Budget

The National Cancer Act of 1971 gives NCI special authority to submit an annual budget estimate directly to the President for transfer to Congress. This special authority is unique to NCI among the NIH Institutes and Centers. The document is commonly called the “Bypass Budget” because it bypasses the usual NIH Institute or Center submission process. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, the NIH Director, and the National Cancer Advisory Board have the opportunity to comment on, but not change, NCI’s professional judgment budget request.

The FY 2012 Professional Judgment Budget, Cancer: Changing the Conversation, requests $5.8 billion.

President’s Budget Request

The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 requires that the President submit to Congress, on or before the first Monday in February of each year, a detailed budget request for the coming federal fiscal year.

The FY 2012 President’s budget request for NCI is $5.2 billion, an increase of about 2% over the FY 2011 Continuing Resolution (CR) budget level.  The President's budget request for NCI can be viewed in the NCI Congressional Justification document or the NIH's Budget in Brief document.

Congressional Justification

The Congressional Justification, commonly called “the C.J.," provides the Senate and House Appropriations Committees detailed estimates and justifications for the President’s Budget Request by explaining the mission of the agency; outlining the goals and objectives of the coming fiscal year; and providing comparative data for the previous, current, and proposed President’s Budget Request.

See page 13 of the FY 2012 NCI Congressional Justification for the NCI Director's narrative of budget strategy in FY 2012.

Budget Request Congressional Testimony

The NCI Director often is asked to submit testimony to the House and Senate in support of the President’s Budget Request for NCI. The most recent testimony available was submitted by NCI Director Dr. Harold Varmus on May 11, 2011, for a hearing held by the Senate Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies.  A webcast of the hearing is available on the Subcommittee’s website.