Congress Works to Wrap up FY 23 Budget and Settle Committee Leadership for the 118th

At the time of writing, all eyes were on the Senate to approve the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government open until December 23rd*. Having reached a bipartisan agreement on topline spending numbers earlier this week, Appropriators have said that the short-term CR will enable them to finalize an omnibus “framework.” Congress hopes that the omnibus – a collection of 12 annual spending bills to be passed at once – can make it to the president’s desk by next week. FABBS has signed onto numerous coalition letters to emphasize the importance of passing a budget for fiscal year (FY) 2023 that reflects increases to NIH, NSF, and IES.

See the FABBS Science Funding Dashboard. 

Senators, the Biden Administration, and the science community are encouraging the Appropriations Committee to fully fund the CHIPS and Science Act in the omnibus. The administration is also eager to increase funding for the new, and still evolving, Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). 

Meanwhile, Members of Congress are busy negotiating leadership roles for the 118th Congress when the House flips to a Republican majority and the Senate fills numerous leadership roles following key retirements. Looking at Committees with jurisdiction over federal agencies funding the behavioral and brain sciences, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) will be the new Ranking Member for the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, and leadership has been granted Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) who required a waiver to continue to return to the helm of the House Committee on Education and Labor. 

*When Congress and the President fail to agree on and pass one or more of the regular appropriations bills, as has become the norm, they instead pass a CR which continues the appropriations at the same levels as the previous fiscal year (or with minor modifications). Unfortunately, CRs are inefficient and very disruptive for federal agencies funding science.