Earlier this week, leaders of the House of Representatives and Senate released the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, a bill to fund the federal government for fiscal year (FY) 2023 known as the omnibus spending bill. The bill includes increased funding in federal agencies and programs critical to the academic public health community. ASPPH has spent the last several months advocating to bolster federal funding for public health workforce, research, and capacity initiatives. This is a huge victory that sets public health up well for next year’s appropriations process.

Key elements of the bill that we are particularly grateful for include:

• Reauthorization of the Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment (PHWLR) program at $100 million to provide loan repayment to public health professionals in exchange for working in a local, state, Territorial, or Tribal public health department. This was a top legislative priority for ASPPH.
• A $2.5 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) base budget at $47.49 billion. This includes $1.5 billion separately for the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) and $95.1 billion at the Fogarty International Center (FIC), with an overall $8 million increase, including $5 million dedicated to health disparities research.
• Increases for several programs within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including the Prevention Research Centers, Injury Control Research Centers, Academic Centers for Public Health, Preparedness, and Education and Research Centers, among others; the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Public Health and Preventive Medicine Program; and the Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) budget.

You can view our entire statement about the bill here and more details about FY 23 funding levels in the omnibus bill can be found in our comparison chart.

Congress has until December 23 to pass the bill to avoid a government shutdown.