Diving Deeper: Funding Bills Released!
Updates and analysis of the hot-off-the-presses FY24 government spending bills
It’s going to be another BUSY week in Washington, and our team is all hands on deck.
House and Senate leaders released a $435 billion fiscal year 2024 spending package on Sunday afternoon. The six included bills (Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy and Water, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD) fund NOAA, the NSF, EPA, BOEM, MARAD, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other important agencies and programs. The House and Senate must pass these bills by midnight this Friday, March 8, to avoid a partial shutdown. Read on for a summary of what’s in them.
It’s looking likely that Congress will succeed in passing the bills. If and when that happens, Congress will have averted the automatic 5-9% spending cuts we discussed last week.
Remember, this package only gets us half of the way home. Six additional FY24 spending bills (Defense, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS-Education, Legislative Branch, and State and Foreign Operations) have a deadline of March 22 to give congressional leaders more time to reach a deal. If you need a refresher on how federal funding is supposed to work, our appropriations 101 can be found here.
Also this week: President Biden is delivering his annual State of the Union address on Thursday at 9pm Eastern. He’s expected to tout benefits from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. This will likely be Biden’s most watched speech before the election in November. We’ll be watching and will report out on major themes impacting the ocean and coastal community in our Friday roundup.
What’s in the funding bills??
Thought you might ask that. Here’s our breakdown:
As expected because of the Biden-McCarthy budget deal struck last summer, this six-bill omnibus is basically a spending freeze with some small cuts and a few increases. The bills are overall more in line with the Senate appropriations bills (which kept things pretty much flat funded) as opposed to the House bills (which had 20-40% cuts in some instances).
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) gets a 8.4% boost in this package. Increases are seen for NOAA Fisheries, Mission Support (mostly to build a new facility), and NOAA’s satellite office, with decreases for the National Ocean Service, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, and the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations. Fisheries increases go towards fisheries data collection and surveys and there is a significant increase for the office of aquaculture. The bill includes a 2.5% increase for the National Estuarine Research Reserve System, which recently added new locations.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) sees a 5% cut overall and a 5.9% cut in research. The bill continues existing funding for the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), and notes the national security importance of retaining U.S. leadership, asking NSF to provide a plan for the future of U.S. scientific ocean drilling.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gets a 9.6% decrease with a 5.5% cut to science and technology. The National Estuary Program is funded at fiscal year 2023 levels.
There is always a lot of policy written in the appropriations bill reports, though this year they are a bit more sparse than in years past. I will note there is a significant focus on harmful algal blooms in NOAA, NSF, and EPA funding.
The Department of Energy receives a 8.7% increase in the FY24 bill. This includes a 11.7% increase for the Water Power Technologies Office, and under that office, a 17.5% increase in marine energy. The Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy, which leads a lot of innovative funding efforts for marine projects, sees a 3% cut.
The Department of the Interior receives a 1.6% decrease, with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) receiving a 4% cut.
The Maritime Administration, the agency responsible for America’s waterborne transportation system, gets an almost 5% increase.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which manages much of our nation’s coastal, waterway, and water management infrastructure, sees a 4.5% increase.
Lots to dig in on here, and we’ll keep you in the loop as this bill progresses through Congress this week.