Resource NCSL Legislative Summary: HR4366, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 and HR2882, Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024

Introduction

President Biden signed two appropriations acts into law finalizing the federal budget process for fiscal year 2024. The president signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 into law on March 9 representing $467.5 billion in government spending. The measure consists of six spending bills: Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-VA and Transportation-HUD. The Senate voted 75-22 and the House voted 339-85 to pass the measure. In a second tranche of six bills, he signed into law the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 on March 23 representing $1.2 trillion in government spending. The second measure consists of six spending bills: Defense, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, Legislative Branch, and State and Foreign Operations. The Seante voted 74-24 and the House voted 286-134.

HR4366, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024

Bill Text: H.R. 4366 – Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024

Press Releases: House GOP | House Democrats | Senate GOP | Senate Democrats

Joint Explanatory Statements: House Appropriations Majority

HR2882, Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024

Bill Text: H.R. 2882 – Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024

Press Releases: House GOP | Senate GOP | Senate Democrats

Joint Explanatory Statements: House Appropriations Majority

Combined

Community Project Funding: House Appropriations Majority

FFIS: Jim Martin Table - Selected Discretionary and Mandatory Program Funding

NCSL continues to advocate for a timely and transparent federal budget process. This includes on-time introduction of the President’s budget, early passage of a budget resolution, timely release of appropriations language with congressional hearings and passage of the 12 annual stand-alone appropriations bills.

NCSL Summary: NCSL’s State-Federal Affairs team has compiled a summary of policy impacts and major budget numbers organized by NCSL Standing Committee.

Banking, Financial Services and Insurance

• Federal Trade Commission: $426 million, partially offset by fees the agency collects, to assist the agency in conducting its goal to protect consumers from fraud including robocall and government impersonator scams that cost Americans billions of dollars every year.

Budgets and Revenue

• Exclusion of State and Local Tax Deductions: The continuing resolution passed in January saw a bipartisan push from a small group of legislators for a measure increasing SALT caps to $20,000 for married couples compared to the current $10,000 for single and joint filers. The measure did not make it into the continuing resolution and, after a failed stand-alone attempt in February, also failed to be included in the passage of the six bills although it may be included in the next six bills.
• Influence of the Fiscal Responsibility Act: The 2023 passage into law of the FRA put discretionary spending limits in place for discretionary spending for fiscal years 2024 and 2025. This has kept FY 20 appropriations relatively flat so far when compared to FY 23. The FY 24 total cap is $1.59 trillion with a defense cap of $886 billion and a non-defense cap of $704 billion. 

Children, Families and Human Services

• Child Care: $8.75 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, a 9% increase of $725 million to provide grants to state, territorial and tribal agencies to subsidize child care expenses for low-income working families and to improve the quality and availability of child care and helps fund child care assistance for upwards of 1.4 million children under age 13 each month.
• Head Start: $12.27 billion, a 2% increase of $275 million. In FY22, the Head Start program served 833,000 children, pregnant women and pregnant people in centers, family homes, and family child care homes.
• Nutrition
  • WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children): $7.03 billion, an increase of $1.3 billion over FY 23 to serve all projected participants, which as of May 2023 assisted 6,576,000 low-income pregnant and nursing women, as well as children up to age 5.
  • SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program): $122.4 billion (to serve all projected participants, which for FY 23 provided the ability for 42,153,000 low-income families to supplement their grocery budget with nutritious food essential to health and well-being. 

Education

• Elementary and Secondary Education
  • Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part B and C grants to states: $15.17 billion (increase of $20 million).
  • Title I Grants: $18.4 billion to school districts, an increase of $20 million).
  • Title II teacher professional development grants to states: $2.2 billion, equal to FY 23FY 23 funding.
  • Title IV Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants: $1.4 billion, equal to FY 23 funding.
• Higher Education
  • Federal TRIO programs: $1.2 billion, equal to FY 23 funding.
  • Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Minority Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities: $1.02 billion in grants and programs of support, a decrease of $10 million.
  • Pell Grant: Maintains maximum award of $7,395 for 2024-2025.
• Career and Technical Education
  • Perkins career and technical education state grants: $1.45 billion, an increase of $10 million. 

Health

• Extends funding for the following programs through Dec. 31, 2024:
  • Community Health Centers, an increase of $270 million.
  • National Health Service Corps, an increase of $35 million.
  • Teaching Health Centers that Operate graduate medical education programs, an increase of $48.5 million.
  • Special Diabetes Program, an increase of $10 million.
• Medicaid
  • Requires states to maintain Medicaid eligibility for incarcerated people (Medicaid services remain suspended during incarceration).
  • Makes permanent a state option to eliminate the Medicaid exclusion for services provided in “institutions for medical disease” (also known as the “IMD exclusion”).
  • Permanently requires state Medicaid plans to cover state Medicaid assisted treatment for substance use disorder.
• Biomedical research/National Institute of Health: $48.6 billion in base discretionary funding (Increase of $300 million) for research in the areas of mental health, opioids, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, palliative care, diabetes and maternal mortality.
• Maternal Health: Keeps funding level for the Maternal & Child Health Block Grant ($814 million) but provides $345 million for the Improving Maternal Health Initiative, a $21 million increase.
• Mental Health: Provides level funding for the Mental Health Block Grant ($1 million), the Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program ($153 million, Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics ($385 million) and funding for school-based mental health professionals ($160 million). Increases funding for the 988 Suicide Prevention Lifeline to $519 million (increase of $18 million).
• Substance Use Prevention and Treatment: Provides level funding of $4.6 billion for the Substance Use Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Services Block Grant, State Opioid Response grants and the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program. 

Labor and Economic Development

• Cultural Affairs
  • National Endowment for the Arts: $207 million, equal to the FY 23 enacted level.
  • National Endowment for the Humanities: $207 million, equal to the FY 23 enacted level.
• Economic Development
  • Economic Development Administration: $468 million, a $30 million increase over FY 23 enacted levels for community economic development.
    • Public Works Program: $100 million, a decrease of nearly $21 million. This affects the program’s ability to support bricks-and-mortar projects in distressed communities across the nation.
  • New Initiatives:
    • Regional Technology and Innovation Hub: $41 million in funding authorized for the first time in the CHIPS and Science Act. These hubs aim to strengthen U.S. economic and national security with investments in regions across the country with assets and resources to become globally competitive in the technologies and industries of the future.
    • Assistance to Indigenous Communities:
      • $5 million for a new program to address the economic development needs of Indigenous communities.
    • Housing
      • Overview: Overall, the final spending bill provides HUD programs with $70 billion, which is $8.3 billion more than FY 23-enacted levels. This is a significant increase.
      • HOME Investment Partnerships Programs: $1.25 billion, a decrease of $250 million from FY 23 enacted level but higher than the initial $500 million proposed by the House.
      • Homeless Assistance Grants: $4.05 billion, a $418 million increase over FY 23 enacted levels.
      • Project-Based Rental Assistance: $16 billion, an increase of nearly $2 billion to renew all existing project-based rental assistance contracts. Maintains the program and existing contracts, does not provide additional funds as rental costs continue to increase.
      • Public Housing Trust Fund: $8.8 billion, a $300 million increase from FY 23 enacted levels. Provides funding for payments to public housing agencies for the operation and management of public housing.
      • Tenant-Based Rental Assistance: $32.4 billion, a nearly $5 billion increase from FY 23 enacted levels. Provides sufficient funding to renew all existing Section 8 vouchers and issue a limited number of new incremental vouchers for vulnerable populations such as youth aging out of foster care and veterans that are at risk of homelessness.
    • Labor and Employment
      • Department of Labor: The bill provides a total of $13.7 billion for DOL. After adjusting for Community Project Funding, the total amount is a slight decrease of $37 million (0.3%) compared to FY 23.
      • Bureau of International Labor Affairs: $116 million, equal to the FY 23 enacted level.
      • Employment and Training Administration: $10 billion, a decrease of $28 million from the FY 23 enacted level, for job training and career services.
        • $2.9 billion for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) State Grants, equal to FY 23.
        • $285 million for Registered Apprenticeships, equal to FY 23.
      • Foreign Labor Certification
      • Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program: $66 million, equal to the FY 23 enacted level.
      • Women’s Bureau: $23 million for the Women’s Bureau, equal to the FY 23 enacted level.
      • Worker Protection Agencies: $1.9 billion for Worker Protection Agencies, equal to the FY 23 enacted levels, provides funding for the Wage and Hour Division, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Employee Benefits Security Administration.
    • Trade
      • Export-Import Bank: $126 million, a $1 million (1%) increase, which is allocated to its inspector general.
      • International Trade Administration: $623 million, a decrease of $2 million to help support exports and foreign investment.
        • Bureau of Industry and Security: $191 million to support the BIS’s enforcement of Russian and Belarussian export controls and other BIS efforts to counter Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. It will also support stringent export control measures on high-end technologies with end users in China.
      • United States Trade Representative: $74 million for USTR, $59 million allocated for salaries and expenses, around a $1 million decrease from the FY 23 enacted level.

• Veterans and Military Affairs
  • Department of Defense (DOD): $824.4 billion, a nearly $27 billion or 3.4% increase from FY 23 enacted levels.
  • Support for Military Personnel and Military Families:
    • $50 million to fund the 5.2% pay raise for service members. This marks the largest pay raise for the military in 20 years, and the largest increase for civilians in 40 years.
    • Basic Allowance for Housing:4% increase for BAH, to help junior servicemembers.
    • Family Housing Improvement Fund: $6.6 million to support administration of privatized family housing under the Military Housing Privatization Initiative Program as prescribed by the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990.
    • Military Housing: $29.6 billion for military housing.
  • National Guard and Reserves: $9.7 billion, $1 billion above the budget request for the National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account: $310 million for the Army National Guard; $300 million for the Air National Guard; $155 million for the Army Reserve; $155 million for the Air Force Reserve.
  • Veteran Homelessness Prevention: $3.1 billion, $418 million more than FY 23 enacted levels to support critical services and housing assistance for veterans and their families experiencing housing insecurity. 

Law and Public Safety

• Office of Justice Programs
  • Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants: $924 million for Byrne JAG to support state and local criminal justice related programs, a $153 million increase from FY 23.
  • Community Oriented Policing Services Grants: $664 million, a $2 million increase over FY 23.
  • Second Chance Act Programs: $117 million for state and local programs providing reentry services to previously incarcerated individuals, an $ 8 million decrease from FY 23 enacted level.
  • State Criminal Alien Assistance Program: $234 million for reimbursements to states and localities that have incurred costs detaining undocumented convicted criminals. This is level funding.
• Office on Violence Against Women: $713 million for Violence Against Women Prevention and Prosecution Programs, a $13 million increase from FY 23.
  • Services, Training, Officers, and Prosecutors School Violence Grants: $255 million, level funding.
• Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention: $375 million for grant funding for programs to prevent and respond to juvenile delinquency and victimization. This is a $25 million decrease from the FY 23 enacted level.
• Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency: $2.9 billion, which is $19.2 million above FY 23 and $130 million below the request.
• Immigration Related Agencies and Programs
  • Customs and Border Protection: $19.934 billion, an increase of $3.2 billion above FY 23 and $3.1 billion above the agency’s budget request.
  • Immigration and Customs Enforcement: $9.8 billion, which is $1.3 billion above FY 23 and $1.4 billion above the request.
  • Shelter and Services Program: $650 million for SSP to provide temporary shelter and other services to individuals released from DHS custody.
• Federal Emergency Management Agency: $25.3 billion for FEMA, which is $73 million behold FY 23 enacted levels and $268 million below the request.
  • Disaster Relief Fund: Fully funded at $20.2 billion for post-disaster response. 

Natural Resources, Energy and Environment

• Overview:
  • Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies: $38.9 billion coupled with $2.6 billion in additional wildfire funding, the bill represents a $1.5 billion cut compared to the previous year.
  • Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies: $26.3 billion, approximately the same amount as the comparable level for FY 23. The bill includes a total of $211 billion for discretionary and mandatory programs.
  • Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies: $58.2 billion, an approximately $1 billion decrease from FY 23 spending levels.
• Environmental Protection Agency: $9.2 billion, a reduction of $232 million in non-Superfund spending.
• Land Management:
  • Land and Water Conservation Fund: $900 million for land acquisition and support for state recreation programs, maintaining previous funding levels.
  • Geographic Programs: $681.7 million to help restore nationally significant bodies of water like the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Sound. This maintains last year’s funding level.
  • Foreign Land Ownership: Includes new bipartisan language to address concerns about hostile foreign countries and entities buying United States agricultural land.
• National Agriculture:
  • Animal and Plant Health Inspection: $1.2 billion, which is $9 million below FY 23 funding, to help address plant and animal diseases and pests.
  • Agriculture Research: $1.7 billion, a $43 million increase.
• National Energy:
  • Research and Development: $1.7 billion, including investments in research, development, and demonstration activities to support the next generation of clean and safe reactors, further improve the safety and economic viability of our current reactor fleet, and contribute to the nation’s long-term leadership in the global nuclear power industry. This is a $300 million increase from 2023 levels.
• Rural Policy:
  • Continues critical investments in agriculture research, rural rental assistance, rural broadband, rural water infrastructure and animal and plant health programs.
• Water Policy:
  • State and Tribal Assistance Grants: $4.4 billion, including $2.8 billion for Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds. This program is funded at 2023 levels.
  • Community Project Funding: includes $1.4 billion for more than 1,000 drinking water, stormwater and wastewater management projects across the country, continuing 2023 funding levels.
  • S. Army Corps of Engineers: $8.7 billion to invest in water infrastructure and the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, conduct projects on the inland waterways system and conduct flood and storm mitigation, a $400 million increase from 2023 levels.
• Waste Management:
  • Superfund: $538 million, $182 million above what was requested in the president’s budget. The bill assumes $1.2 billion in excise tax receipts to fully fund activities for the first time. 

Technology and Communications

• Affordable Connectivity Program: No additional funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program. President Biden requested $6 billion to extend the ACP through 2024. Funding for the program will expire April 2024.
  • A lapse in funding for the ACP will impose hardships on the 23 million Americans who rely on the program to secure high-speed internet services. It might also impede the success of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program because residents will be unable to afford the service despite having access to newly deployed infrastructure.

Transportation

• Overview: Housing and Urban Development and related agencies provides $79.4 billion for roads, bridges and transit infrastructure programs funded through the Highway Trust Fund, an increase of $1.8 billion from 2023.
• Aviation:
  • Federal Aviation Administration: Funds improvements to aviation systems by funding the FAA at $20.1 billion, approximately $1.1 billion above 2023 levels. This includes an $800 million increase for FAA operations, which will help expand the air traffic controller workforce by 1,800 personnel, among other items.
  • Airport Improvement Program: Invests $3.9 billion for grants to reduce emissions at airports, build airport infrastructure necessary to support unleaded fuels and sustainable aviation fuels, and build resiliency at airports in the face of climate change and worsening natural disasters, an increase of close to $600 million.
• Federal Railroad Administration: $3 billion, $400 million below FY 23 enacted levels, for the Federal Railroad Administration to advance the safety and reliability of passenger and freight rail systems. This includes nearly $199 million for the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements program, a $360 million decrease from 2023.
• Motor Carrier Regulation:
  • Federal Transit Administration: $16.6 billion, an increase of $1.9 billion.
  • Transit Formula Grants: $13.9 billion to expand bus fleets and increase the transit state of good repair.
• Waterways and Ports:
  • Maritime Administration: $940.7 million, $44.6 million above the FY 23 enacted level, including $318 million for the Maritime Security Program and $60 million for the Tanker Security Program.
  • Port Infrastructure Development Program: $120 million, in addition to $450 million in FY 24 advance appropriations.