FY23 Budget!
On Tuesday, December 20, 2022, Democratic and Republican appropriators released a $1.7 trillion FY23 omnibus spending bill, which will be passed by Congress in advance of the December 23rd funding deadline. Each side of the aisle claimed their own victories in the package, which spans 4,155 pages. It not only covers the dozen annual spending bills for every federal agency, plus supplemental aid for the war in Ukraine and natural disaster victims, but also an extensive set of unrelated policies such as horseracing industry rules and a TikTok ban on government-issued devices. Brief highlights of the package include:
- Funding for bipartisan priorities including $58.7 billion for programs authorized by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; $1.8 billion in new funding to implement the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022; and $5 billion for the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund to implement the landmark PACT Act.
- Making investments in health care and research including $47.5 billion for the National Institutes of Health, $9.2 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, $1.5 billion for ARPA-H (the President’s bold initiative to fight cancer), and $950 million for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
- Supporting nutrition programs including a $13.4 billion increase for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, $28.5 billion for Child Nutrition Programs, and $6 billion for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.
- Providing housing assistance including $3.6 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants, $2 billion for the Rural Housing Service, $1.5 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, $1.435 billion for the Housing for the Elderly and Housing for Persons with Disabilities program, and new incremental Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers to support over 11,700 additional low-income households.
- Investing in education including increasing the maximum Pell Grant award to $7,395, $18.387 billion for Title I-A grants, and $1.2 billion for TRIO to support more than 800,000 low-income first generation students get into college and succeed when they’re there.
- Supporting childcare by investing $7.67 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, and nearly $12 billion for Head Start.
- Providing $5 billion for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to help families address the rising cost of energy.
- A record $700 million for combatting violence against women.
These investments and others advance important, bipartisan policy priorities and provide relief to American families from the rising costs of living as a result of inflation. It helps families put food on the table, make rent and mortgage payments, and reduces the cost of childcare and higher education.