117th Congress Takes Steps to Pass an Omnibus Appropriations Bill

Early on Tuesday, December 19, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees released the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 2617) to fund the federal government for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023. This omnibus appropriations package includes $858 billion in defense spending and $772.5 billion in non-defense discretionary spending. The omnibus appropriations package also includes $44.9 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine and our NATO allies and $40.6 billion to assist communities across the country recovering from natural disasters.

Higher education programs within the Department of Education will receive a 17.7 percent increase in funding from FY 2022, including an increase in the maximum Pell Grant award by $500 to $7,395 for the 2023-2024 school year, $1.2 billion for TRIO programs, which includes the Ronald E. McNair Scholarship, and $1.02 billion in funding to assist Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Minority Serving Institutions, and Hispanic Serving Institutions. The omnibus appropriations package also includes $111 million for Department of Education programs designed to increase the availability of mental health services in schools, including expanding training programs to prepare new school counselors, social workers and psychologists.

The omnibus appropriations package includes significant increases for the nation’s science agencies. Specifically, the appropriations package calls for $47.5 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health, which is a 5.6 percent increase over FY 2022 funding levels. For the National Science Foundation, the package includes $9.9 billion, which is an historic increase of 12 percent. This level of funding will support approximately 2,300 additional research and education grants and 35,000 scientists, technicians, teachers, and students compared to fiscal year 2022. For the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the package includes $8.1 billion in funding, which is an increase of 8.4 percent over FY 2022. You can view an updated FY 2023 Funding for CGS Programs of Interest document here. Congress is set to vote on the omnibus appropriations package later this week before the continuing resolution expires on December 23.