Congress Gets Moving on FY 2023 Appropriations Bills

Last week, half of the subcommittees of the House Appropriations Committee marked up their respective spending bills for fiscal year (FY) 2023; the remaining bills—including those of particular interest to the research community—are scheduled for consideration this week. In the next couple of days, the House Commerce, Justice, Science and the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Subcommittees will consider their respective bills. The full House Appropriations Committee is expected to take up the bills individually in the coming weeks with a goal of bringing as many to the House floor as possible before the August month-long recess.

Despite the current rush to move spending legislation in House, the process remains far from the finish line. Last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee advanced a bipartisan proposal for defense spending for FY 2023 calling for significant boosts to defense funding over the amount requested by the Biden Administration. This move instantly puts the House and Senate at odds about how to balance defense and non-defense spending next year, a debate that regularly complicates, if not derails altogether, the annual appropriations process. It is unclear how far the Senate Appropriations Committee will get with their FY 2023 appropriations bills—which have not yet been introduced—before attention turns to the upcoming midterm elections.

COSSA will be reporting on all the details of the FY 2023 process in the coming weeks.