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Congress Averts a Government Shutdown… Again

News Article
Nov 17, 2023

With no shortage of issues to address, recently elected Speaker Mike Johnson faced his first significant test as leader to prevent a government shutdown when funding was set to run out on November 17. After deliberating with members of his caucus, Johnson advanced a “laddered” continuing resolution (CR) that extended funding for four appropriations bills through January 19 and the remaining eight bills, including the Department of Defense (DoD) and Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) bills, through February 2. With many Republicans opposed to supporting a clean CR without funding cuts, the measure advanced through the House with the help of Democrats, and then was quickly adopted by the Senate and signed by President Joe Biden.

While the threat of a government shutdown has been postponed, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the DoD Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) will be operating under a CR for at least the first two months of the fiscal year (FY). These research agencies will continue to be funded at FY 2023 levels, maintaining existing spending levels. Yet, CRs are detrimental to advancing research. Specifically, NIH institutes and centers do not award new research grants while under a CR, leading to delays in the initiation or continuation of planned activities. Additionally, NIH holds back a portion of awarded grants due to the budget uncertainty. This may affect investigators’ ability to staff their labs and make other decisions necessary to advance their research. Because of this, grant applicants and recipients should closely monitor communications from funding agencies like the NIH to navigate challenges posed by CRs.

In related appropriations news, the House Committee on Appropriations released its FY 2024 Labor-HHS report on November 3. For FY 2024, the Committee recommends a total of $147 billion in current year discretionary funding, a decrease of $60 billion below the FY 2023 enacted level. This legislation includes significant cuts to health funding and is very different from the version that passed the Senate Appropriations Committee. The House was supposed to vote on the bill on November 15; however, the vote was postponed at least until after Thanksgiving when leadership determined there were not enough votes for it to pass. In the meantime, we’ve updated SGO’s appropriations funding chart here.

Stay tuned for more updates in this space as the FY 2024 appropriations process continues and we gear up for FY 2025.