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Much-Awaited Omnibus Spending Bill Finally Released

 

Nearly three months into the new fiscal year and after months of seemingly little-to-no negotiations,

Congressional leaders released the much-awaited FY2023 omnibus appropriations package late yesterday.  Coming in at more than 4,100 pages, it contains all 12 spending bills for FY2023.  The current short-term government funding measure expires at midnight Saturday and Congressional leaders are working to get the new measure passed before then.

The Office of Federal Relations is in the process of digging through the package and details will emerge throughout the process.  We will share new information contained in the bill along the way.  In the meantime, we wanted to highlight a few of the initial highlights from the bill below:

  • The Pell Grant maximum would increase by $500 and the new maximum would increase to $7,395 for the next academic year.
  • NIH would be funded at $47.5 billion, an increase of $2.5 billion.
  • ARPA-H would see a total of $1.5 billion, which is also authorized, an increased of $500 M. ARPA-H will be administratively within NIH, but the bill prohibits ARPA-H, including its headquarters, from being physically located on any part of the existing NIH campus, and it requires ARPA-H to have offices or facilities in not less than 3 geographic areas. Further, in determining the location of these offices or facilities, the director is required to make “fair and open consideration” of the characteristics of the intended location and the extent to which the location will facilitate the advancement of the goals and functions of the agency.
  • NSF would be funded at $9.87 billion for FY2023, with the appropriators acknowledging that expectations were set for the agency by the CHIPS and Science Act, passed earlier this year.
    • Of the funds allocated to NSF, approximately $7.8 M would be for the Research and Related Activities Account while $1.37 billion would be for the Education and Human Resources Account.
  • Within NASA, which would be funded at $25.4 billion, $7.8 billion would go to Science. Space Grant would be funded at $58 million.
  • NOAA Oceanic and Atmospheric Research would be funded at $661.3 million, which would include funding of $104 million for the cooperative institutes.
  • Base Sea Grant would be funded at $80 million while Sea Grant Aquaculture would see a funding level of $14 million.

With respect to a provision that applies to a host of programs across different departments and agencies, the bill would wave “PAYGO” rules, which would implement mandatory sequester cuts to various programs, for FY2023 and FY2024.

As we said above, we will continue to dig through the legislation and the accompanying reports.  Both are available on the Senate Appropriations Committee webpage here.


 

DACA Program Remains but Future is Uncertain After Fifth Circuit’s Decision

On October 5th, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2021 ruling that struck down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The 2021 decision by Judge Hanen of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas found that the program is illegal, stating that the Obama administration did not have the authority to institute the DACA program the way that they did – under a memorandum by the Department of Homeland Security.

The October 5th decision did not end the program — DACA recipients who are already enrolled in the program are still protected and their work authorizations are still valid. Those that are already enrolled can also continue to renew their DACA grants, however first-time applications are still not being processed.

Back in late August, the Biden administration released a new rule that codifies the DACA program into federal regulation that would go into effect on October 31st. In its ruling, the Fifth Circuit sent the case back to Judge Hanen in Texas to consider the impact of the administration’s new rule and judge its legality. The new rule has a similar structure as the current DACA program and faces similar limitations – even if Judge Hanan rules positively on Biden’s rule, it cannot provide Dreamers with permanent legal status or fully protect them from legal challenges in the future. Only Congress can fully protect Dreamers.

After the decision from the Fifth Circuit, President Biden, along with several advocacy groups, called on Congress to pass permanent protection for DACA recipients. The House already passed a bill in March of 2021 to provide Dreamers with a pathway to citizenship, but the Senate has not considered it so far. Some Democratic senators have called for Congress to pass DACA legislation during the lame duck period after the midterms but the biggest hurdle for Democrats to pass immigration legislation is the Senate filibuster – they will need all 50 Democrats and 10 Republicans to agree to a bill. So far this has seemed unlikely, but it still could be the best chance for Democrats, especially if Republicans take the majority in the House or the Senate in the next Congress.

If Biden’s rule is struck down again, further appeals are expected and DACA is expected to be heard by the Supreme Court this term or next term. This would be the third time that a case regarding the DACA program has been taken up by the Supreme Court. The first time, in 2016, the Court was deadlocked at 4-4 which ended up blocking an expanded version of DACA. The second was in 2020 when the Court ruled 5-4 that the Trump administration improperly ended DACA, which allowed it to stay in place. This would be the first time that the current, more conservative leaning Court would hear a case regarding the legality of the program itself.

UW recognizes in its 2022 Federal Agenda the need for comprehensive immigration reform which includes a permanent legal fix for DACA-eligible recipients and their families. The office will continue to monitor and provide updates on DACA in Congress and in the courts.

More information about the decision can be found here and here.

Congress Passes a CR to Fund the Federal Government through Dec. 16th

On September 30th, Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) to extend the current funding levels for the federal government through December 16, averting a partial government shutdown and extending time for Congress to agree on and pass the funding bills for FY2023. The CR passed the Senate after Sen. Manchin (D-WV) removed his pipeline permit measure which was opposed by both Republicans and progressive Democrats. In addition to extending the current funding levels, the CR included $17 billion in emergency funding for Ukraine, $19 billion for FEMA for disaster relief, and reauthorized the Food and Drug Administration’s user fee programs, but it did not include President Biden’s request for COVID-19 and monkeypox response funding. 

Both chambers are now in recess until after the midterms after which they will have to return to reach an agreement on the FY23 funding bills. Our office will continue to monitor and publish FY23 activity.   

More information on the continuing resolution can be found here.  

Prabhakar Confirmed as OSTP Director

By a vote of 56 – 40, the Senate confirmed yesterday the nomination of Arati Prabhakar as Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). She had cleared the committee process earlier this year and had been waiting for a vote by the full Senate. She was nominated to fill the role after Eric Lander resigned the from the OSTP earlier this year.

Read more about her nomination here.  

Biden Signs Reconciliation Bill

Last Tuesday, President Biden signed into law H.R. 5376, the Inflation Reduction Act.  Though smaller than the original plans for a reconciliation package, both the Biden Administration and Congressional Democrats are touting the measure as a major accomplishment.