# Federal Update: Congress Moves on Final FY22 Appropriations March 10, 2022 Nearly halfway through the fiscal year, Congress is on the verge of completing legislation providing $1.5 trillion of discretionary funding for FY22, with the House passing (in two votes of 361-69 and 260-171) the omnibus bill late Wednesday and the Senate preparing for approval either Friday or this weekend. The bipartisan agreement consists of all 12 FY22 spending bills and supplemental funding to support Ukraine. With government funding scheduled to expire on March 11, Congress may also pass, if needed, a four-day continuing resolution to give the Senate additional time to complete the omnibus legislation and avoid a federal shutdown. With the successful conclusion of the FY22 process, Congress and the Administration will turn their attention to the FY23 process, the competitiveness legislation, and the latent effort to revive a narrow version of the Build Back Better Act. **FY22 Funding Outcomes** After months of disagreement over topline spending levels, the omnibus package includes $730 billion for nondefense spending, a 6.7 percent – or $46 billion – increase over FY21. Although this is lower than the President’s requested level of $770 billion, it is the largest increase in nondefense spending in four years. Facing demands from Republicans and defense hawks for “parity” for defense spending, the package appropriates $782 billion for this purpose, an increase of $42 billion – or 5.6 percent – over FY21. In addition to annual funding, the legislation also includes $13.6 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine, and a few ride-along legislative provisions, like the long-stalled reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. In a last-minute change, House members did force leadership to drop additional COVID-19 relief and pandemic preparedness funding because of concerns that this support had been pared back too far and was mostly reliant on repurposing earlier COVID relief funding; so this will remain unfinished business. On University priorities, the omnibus package provides strong funding, including for NIH (+$2.25 billion, or 4.5 percent increase), Pell (+$400, the single largest one-year increase in a decade), and NSF (+$350 million, or 4 percent increase). Of particular note, the package provides $1 billion to establish ARPA-H within the HHS Office of the Secretary to accelerate the pace of scientific breakthroughs for serious diseases, which is a signature priority for President Biden. And it establishes a new Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships at NSF to focus on use inspired research in AI, quantum, and climate science. Below is a chart that details funding for various programs important across the campus. Sort **Final FY21** **Final FY22** **FY22 v FY21** **Labor-HHS-Education** NIH 42934 44959 4.7% Pell Grants (Discretionary Funding) 22475 22475 0.0% Pell Grants (Max Grant) 6495 6895 6.2% Federal Perkins Loans Work Study 1190 1210 1.7% SEOG 880 895 1.7% TRIO 1097 1137.0 3.6% GEAR UP 368 378 2.7% Title VI 78.2 81.7 4.5% GAANN 23.5 23.5 0.0% Institute of Education Sciences 642.5 737.0 14.7% Institute of Museum and Library Services 257.0 268 4.3% **Commerce-Justice-Science** NSF -Total 8486.8 8838 4.1% NSF- Research and Related 6909.8 7159.4 3.6% NSF - Major Research Equipment 241 249 3.3% NSF - Ed & HR 968 1006.0 3.9% NASA -Total 23271.3 24041.3 3.3% NASA - Science 7301 7614.4 4.3% NASA - Aeronautics 828.7 880.7 6.3% NASA - STEM Engagement 127 137 7.9% **Defense** 6.1 Basic Research 2671.5 2763.5 3.4% 6.2 Applied Research 6446.1 6908.2 7.2% DARPA 3571.3 3870 8.4% **Energy and Water** Office of Science - Total 7026 7475 6.4% High Energy Physics 1046 1078 3.1% Nuclear Physics 713 728 2.1% Basic Energy Sciences 2245 2308 2.8% Biological and Envir. Research 753 815 8.2% ARPA-E 427 450 5.4% **Interior-Environment** NEA 167.5 180 7.5% NEH 167.5 180 7.5% EPA S&T 729.3 750.2 2.9% **FY23 President’s Budget** With FY22 mostly settled, there are indications that the President’s FY23 budget request may be released in late March/early April, but an exact date has not been confirmed. Although this timeline is an improvement over President Biden’s first full budget, which was submitted on May 28, 2021, this late start will exacerbate the delays already expected in the process during a highly political year with the midterm elections in November. That said, the delay will likely allow the Administration to propose agency and program level funding that is based on the final resolution of the FY22 process, instead of relying on FY21 as its baseline. **Competitiveness Package** In his State of the Union Address, President Biden urged Congress to complete its work on reconciling the Senate’s US Innovation and Competition Act and the House’s America COMPETES Act, which fund domestic semiconductor manufacturing, establish ambitious funding targets for the federal science and engineering agencies, like the National Science Foundation, and improve supply chain resiliency. Although the President was mainly focused on the semiconductor sector, the bills are central to his efforts to authorize greater investment in U.S. research and development and to counter competition from China and elsewhere. Generally, the semiconductor and the science investments are bipartisan, but there are difficult issues to resolve on trade and foreign policy, immigration, and science, including security issues, like foreign gift and contract reporting, and the distribution of competitive research funds. Negotiations are just beginning at the staff level, but this will likely be the next big package considered by Congress. It is worth noting that the FY22 funding levels for the agencies included in the omnibus package, including NSF, DOE, and NIST, fall below the targets established in the House or Senate competitiveness bills. Although authorization and appropriations processes have always been separate, many hope that a bipartisan agreement on robust funding targets could help drive increased appropriations in FY23 and beyond, even if the control of one or both chambers changes at the midterm. **Build Back Better** Although the Build Back Better reconciliation bill, as envisioned and passed by the House, is dead, there is renewed interest by Democrats in revisiting a social spending package with a focus on addressing inflation. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), who was an obstacle on the larger House bill, laid out a version of the reconciliation bill that would focus on lowering the cost of prescription drugs, providing support for alternative energy and climate change, and attention to deficit reduction. He also is interested in reforming the tax code, saying that the 2017 reforms were unfairly weighted in favor of the wealthiest and corporations. In his State of the Union address, President Biden urged Congress to advance a revised package, which he recast as an opportunity to rein in the debt as well as invest in families. Many expect to know more about the prospects for and contents of the package in the coming weeks, with consideration possible in May or June. **Contact** As always, Harvard’s DC-based federal relations office will remain closely engaged in support of University priorities. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Suzanne Day ([suzanne\_day@harvard.edu](mailto:///suzanne_day@harvard.edu)) or Kara Haas ([kara\_haas@harvard.edu](mailto:///kara_haas@harvard.edu)). See also:- [ Budget and Appropriations ](/issues/budget-appropriations) - [ Washington Updates ](/news-source/washington-update) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)