House and Senate leaders released a six-bill, $435 billion negotiated FY24 spending package on Sunday afternoon. The bills (Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy and Water, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD) fund NOAA, NSF, EPA, BOEM, MARAD, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other important agencies and programs. The House and Senate must pass these bills by midnight this Friday, March 8, to avoid a partial shutdown.
The remaining six bills, Defense, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS-Education, Legislative Branch, and State and Foreign Operations, have a deadline of March 22, 2024, to give congressional leaders more time to reach a deal.
What's in the bills?
As expected after the Biden-McCarthy budget deal last summer, this 6-bill omnibus is basically a spending freeze with some small cuts and a few increases. These bills are more in line with the Senate appropriations bills, which kept things pretty much flat funded, than the House bills, which had 20-40% cuts in some instances. Veterans spending gets a big increase in these negotiated bills, and there is an extra $1 billion for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) special supplemental nutrition program.
Here are some agency and department level highlights. Make sure to subscribe to our Ocean Policy Insights newsletter to get more details delivered to your inbox!
Agency/Department | Difference from FY23 |
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | +8.41% |
National Science Foundation | -5.02% |
Environmental Protection Agency | -9.63% |
Department of Energy | +7.97% |
Department of Interior | -1.59% |
Army Corps of Engineers | +4.46% |
Maritime Administration | +4.98% |