This week, the House worked to pass the annual spending bill and its provisions out of the Appropriations Committee. Ridge Policy Group (RPG), a top DC lobbying firm, worked hard in a bipartisan manner to get their clients’ priorities considered.
Being one of the country’s top government affairs firms, RPG has been meeting with House members on the House Appropriations Committee and other champions to get their clients’ voices heard.
RPG expects the full House to vote on the appropriations bills sometime this summer. The Senate will also consider their own versions of the appropriations bills. Below is an overall summary of each bill.
Defense – $761.7B:
- Support a 4.6% military pay raise
- Provide funding for eight Navy ships and 61 F-35 aircraft
- Provide $300 million for Ukraine security aid
- Require for-profit contractors to pay a $15 minimum wage
- Repeal the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs
- Prohibit DOD from denying service members or civilians leave to get an abortion
- Prohibit funds for Wuhan Institute of Virology, EcoHealth Alliance research in China
- Bar funds to operate Guantanamo Bay Naval Station after fiscal 2023
Labor-HHS-Education – $224.4B:
- Provide $2.75 billion for ARPA-H
- Omit the Hyde amendment that bars federal funding for most abortions
- Allow Title X family planning funds for contraceptives, abortion counseling or referral
- Allow funds to be used to provide mental health and other services to families separated at the border
- Prohibit funds to foster care organizations that don’t comply with nondiscrimination rules, including gender identity or sexual orientation
- Make DACA recipients eligible for federal financial aid
MilCon-VA- $150.5B:
- Provide $128.1 billion in advance fiscal 2024 appropriations for veterans’ health and
- $155.4 billion in mandatory funding for benefits
- Provide $13.9 billion for mental health care for veterans
- Provide additional $200 million for PFAS cleanup at contaminated military bases
- Permanently allow the VA to cover infertility treatment and adoption expenses
- Omit policy riders barring closure of Guantanamo Bay Naval Station
Transportation-HUD – $90.9B:
- $12.8 billion for new affordable housing and safety improvements for public and low-income housing
- More than $1.6 billion to reduce transportation emissions and inequities
- $1.1 billion to support more than 140,000 new housing vouchers to address homelessness
- $775 million for multimodal RAISE grants, including road, rail, and transit projects
Commerce-Justice-Science – $85.5B:
- Provide $475 million for grant programs that aim to reduce gun violence, including a pilot program for states to create “red flag” laws
- Include funding for investigations and prosecutions related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol
- Limit funding to support science research collaboration with Russia
- Remove several gun-related riders from previous appropriations measures
- Omit restrictions on using funds to pay for abortion
- Omit language that barred funds from being used to transfer or release Guantanamo Bay detainees.
State-Foreign Operations – $64.6B:
- Provide $3.6 billion to address the climate crisis, including contribution to Green Climate Fund
- Contribute to global food program to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
- Direct the State Department to use funding to expedite Afghan Special Immigrant Visa cases
- Omit Helms amendment language, which bars funds from being used for any abortion
- Permanently block Mexico City Policy
- Allow restrictions on US contributions to UNESCO related to Palestinian membership to be waived to counter Chinese influence
Homeland Security – $60.3B:
- Provide an additional $19.9 billion for disasters
- Extend Title 42 immigration restrictions for 180 days after the end of the pandemic
- Make unused green cards available for current immigrants stuck in backlog
- Prohibit detentions or removals based on information provided to sponsor of an unaccompanied child or in therapy sessions
- Prohibit ICE from engaging in civil immigration enforcement activities with Homeland Security Investigations personnel
- Bar the use of funds to deny immigration based on personal marijuana use
Energy and Water – $56.3B:
- Prohibit use of funds for California’s Shasta Dam and Reservoir Enlargement Project
- Provide $1.8 billion for the Nuclear Energy Office to support current and future reactors
- Provide $100 million for DOE to accelerate clean energy technology manufacturing using the Defense Production Act
Interior-Environment – $44.8B
- Financial Services: $29.8B:
- Provide $400 million for election security grants
- Provide $100 million for electric vehicles
- Provide $21.9 million for the new Office of the National Cyber Director
- Eliminate policies limiting D.C.’s use of funds for abortions, marijuana, needle exchanges
- Create a commission to recommend name changes or removal of federal sites that are inconsistent with DEI values
- Authorize federal employment for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients
- Eliminate policy barring federal health benefit programs from covering abortions
Financial Services: $29.8B:
- Provide $400 million for election security grants
- Provide $100 million for electric vehicles
- Provide $21.9 million for the new Office of the National Cyber Director
- Eliminate policies limiting D.C.’s use of funds for abortions, marijuana, needle exchanges
- Create a commission to recommend name changes or removal of federal sites that are inconsistent with DEI values
- Authorize federal employment for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients
- Eliminate policy barring federal health benefit programs from covering abortions
AG-FDA – $27.2B:
- Provide total of $195 billion when including mandatory programs such as SNAP
- Increase FDA funding by about 10%, including to help address baby formula shortage
- Provide “such sums” as needed for SNAP in fourth quarter for unanticipated costs
- Prohibit drug approvals for sponsors in Russia unless there’s an unmet need
- Bar companies owned by China, Russia, North Korea, or Iran from purchasing agricultural land in US
- Provide additional $5 million for PFAS-related assistance for agricultural producers
Legislative Branch – $7.0B:
- Provide funding to implement security recommendations after Jan. 6 attack
- Require removal of busts and statues related to Confederacy, White supremacy
- Provide $24.3 million for paid interns
- Allow Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients to work on Capitol Hill
- Block automatic pay raises for lawmakers
Breakdown of Earmarks in each Subcommittee Bill:
- Agriculture-FDA: 134 earmarks totaling $191.2 million
- Commerce-Justice-Science: 288 totaling $444.3 million
- Defense: 16 earmarks totaling $54.2 million
- Energy and Water: 145 earmarks totaling $784.1 million more than the Biden budget request
- Financial Services: 99 earmarks totaling $79.5 million
- Homeland Security: 92 earmarks totaling $213.5 million
- Interior-Environment: 447 earmarks totaling $968 million
- Labor-HHS-Education: 1,310 earmarks totaling $1.4 billion
- Military Construction-VA: 28 earmarks totaling $381.2 million
- Transportation-HUD: 1,827 earmarks totaling $3.7 billion
Ridge Policy Group is proud to announce that several of their clients’ earmarks and spending wishes made it out of the House Committee bills. This is not comprehensive list of all of RPG’s wins, but we are excited to highlight these funding priorities.
National Association of State Head Injury Administrators:
- $4,000,000 for the CDC Concussion Surveillance System
- $13,118,000 for the Traumatic Brain Injury State Partnership program
International Economic Development Council:
- $510,000,000 for the Economic Development Administration (EDA) programs and administration, an increase of $136,500,000 above fiscal year 2022.
Ben Franklin Technology Partners:
- An earmark for the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of North East Pennsylvania’s Bloomsburg Regional Technology Center, which has provided significant regional economic development impact, making its maintenance an important investment priority in the business technology infrastructure. The Bloomsburg Regional Technology Center is a valuable member of the area’s economic development ecosystem. The incubator is doing great work to bridge higher education and local business, encourage high-tech entrepreneurship, and bring good technology-based jobs to a rural community. The funding would be used for needed maintenance and upgrades to the Bloomsburg Regional Technology Center, specifically a reliable HVAC and state-of-the-art telecommunication equipment.
- An earmark for Innovation Works, the Ben Franklin Technology Partner for Southwestern PA, for the On-Ramps to Entrepreneurship program, which identifies the key challenges standing in the way of a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem and creates specialized programming to address each gap in the marketplace. With On-Ramps, Innovation Works is: spurring interest in entrepreneurship among high school and college students; surrounding entrepreneurs with networks of diverse mentors and investors; creating new tools that help entrepreneurs develop a product inexpensively and bring it to market efficiently; and providing one-on-one executive coaching to startups on building a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive business culture.
