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In the last week of June, the House Appropriations Committee passed two Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 appropriations bills important to the population research community. Together, the bills, Commerce, Science, Justice (CJS) and Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (LHHS), fund most of the federal agencies that directly and indirectly support the population sciences, including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), National Institutes of Health (NH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Census Bureau, National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Institute of Education Sciences (IES), and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Below is a table summarizing the Committee’s funding recommendations for those agencies.

Reports accompanying the CJS and LHHS bills expressed the Committee’s priorities and clarified how funding for some specific activities should be allocated. PAA is pleased that the Committee included language in its report praising population research programs supported by the National Institute on Aging and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Other noteworthy items in the committees’ reports include:

• A provision expressing support for the NSF Social, Behavioral, Economic Directorate. Specifically, the report states that the Committee “believes this research provides an evidence-based understanding of the human condition, resulting in more-informed policymaking and better-informed spending on a full range of national issues” and urges continued support.
• A request that the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR) receive no less funding in FY 23 than it received in FY 22 and that NIH provide the Committee with an update on OBSSR activities and progress. The Committee also “commends OBSSR for effectively coordinating and supporting essential basic, clinical, and translational research in the behavioral, social, and population sciences to advance the NIH mission and recognizes the critical role of OBSSR to integrate these sciences throughout the NIH research enterprise via OBSSR’s leadership and coordination.”
• Increased funding for NIH to conduct firearms research ($25 million, an increase of $12.5 million above the FY 2022 funding level), health disparities research ($100 million over FY 2022), and Alzheimer’s and related dementias research ($3.7 billion, an increase of $200 million over FY 2022).
• A provision urging the Census Bureau to continue its work with the White House Office of Management and Budget to update federal race and ethnicity data collection standards, including “the addition of a Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) ethnicity category and a combined race and Hispanic origin question, as soon as practicable.”
• A provision affirming the NCHS mission and asking that the agency be “fully integrated” in the broader, multi-million Data Modernization Initiative led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Language expressing support for efforts underway at the Bureau of Labor Statistics to develop a new National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) cohort.
• A directive to provide the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) with access to additional funding in the IES Program Administration line to fill key job vacancies.

The bills will likely be scheduled for consideration on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in July. The Senate has not acted yet on any of its FY 2023 appropriations bills. Fiscal Year 2023 begins on October 1, 2022.