FABBS commends the House and Senate for coming together and passing the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. The overdue omnibus provides 10.3 percent increase in R&D funding over FY 2022 including for federal agencies supporting behavioral and brain sciences: Institute of Education Sciences (IES), National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The President signed the omnibus spending package on December 29, making the FY 2023 budget law.
FABBS advocates for sustained increases in science investments in science, serving (and often leading) coalitions, meeting with Congressional offices, and signing onto numerous community letters emphasizing the importance of passing a budget that reflects sustained increases to critical scientific agencies.
The table below captures the increases notable to FABBS members from fiscal year (FY) 2022 to FY 2023. See the FABBS Science Funding Dashboard for more information.
| Advanced Research Project Agency for Health (ARPA-H): | National Institutes of Health (NIH): | Institute of Education Sciences (IES): | National Science Foundation (NSF): | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY22 | $1.0 billion | $45.2 billion | $737.5 million | $8.8 billion |
| FY23 | $1.5 billion | $47.5 billion | $807.6 million | $9.9 billion |
ARPA-H was first established in the FY22 appropriations bill. The FY23 omnibus authorizes ARPA-H within NIH with $500 million above FY22. Although far below the administration’s asking of $5 billion, this new agency is an important opportunity to support and advance behavioral and brain sciences.
The final FY23 bill includes $47.5 billion for NIH, an increase of $2.5 billion or 5.6 percent over FY22 with the lowest increase at 3.8 percent for all institutes and centers.
Within the Department of Education, the bill funds the IES at $806.6 million, a 9.6 percent increase from FY22. There were notable increases in the Research, Development, and Dissemination (RD&D), Statistics, and the National Center for Education Research (NCSER) line items.
While the increase this year for NSF is more than $1 billion, it is not to the baseline NSF budget. Instead about $335 million has been allocated for CHIPS and Science implementation supplement and $700 million in supplemental funding for disaster relief. This causes concerns for advocates looking forward to FY 24.
