COSSA Releases Analysis of Senate Draft FY 2023 Appropriations Bills

In late July, the Senate Appropriations Committee released drafts of its fiscal year (FY) 2023 appropriations bills. As previously reported, the House introduced its bills in June and passed half of them in July. While the Senate Appropriations Committee is not planning to take up the bills individually through the regular committee process, the release of its bills allows House and Senate appropriators to begin talks and, hopefully, work toward an agreement on final FY 2023 spending in the fall.

Across many of the accounts, the Senate bills seek sizable increases for federal science agencies and programs, in many cases, exceeding the amounts proposed by the House, as illustrated below. 

Now that Congress is returning from summer recess, lawmakers will begin to hash out their differences across the 12 appropriations bills. As has become custom, though, enactment of a continuing resolution (CR) will likely be needed to keep the government from shutting down on October 1 when the new fiscal year begins. With the midterm elections looming this November, it is not likely the FY 2023 appropriations bills will be finalized until later this year. The timeline of an agreement largely hinges on the outcome of the elections and which party will hold the majorities next year.

This analysis includes details on the Senate’s draft FY 2023 funding bills for federal agencies and programs important to the social and behavioral science research community. The analysis is organized by appropriation bill. Read on for full details.