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Federal Relations

Congress Passes FY 2023 Funding Bills

On December 23, 2022, Congress passed an omnibus appropriations package for FY 2023 that provides significant funding increases for various research and education programs of priority to the university. With the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act over the summer, Congress prioritized funding for the "science" provisions of that bill, as the CHIPS provisions have already received funding. The omnibus bill provides substantial increases to the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, and various programs within the Department of Commerce to spur regional economic development and innovation capacity around the country. Other winners include the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities (NEA and NEH) and the Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences (IES). Quantum information science research at NSF and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) also received notable funding increases. Further, the package includes a $500 increase to the maximum Pell Grant award, bringing it to $7,395 (a 7.3% increase).

With the return of Congressionally directed spending (earmarks), the University of Maryland received $2.25 million to support the Maryland Economic Opportunity Center. The center, which was supported by Senator Ben Cardin and Senator Chris Van Hollen, will aid minority and women-owned small businesses across the state of Maryland.

Below is a summary of some of the funding levels passed in the legislative package. The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) has prepared a more extensive summary and funding chart with additional details.

Research

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

  • National Institutes of Health (NIH): $47.46 billion, up 5.5% over FY22
  • Advanced Research Projects Agency-Health (ARPA-H): $1.5 billion, up 50% over FY22

Department of Defense (DOD)

  • 6.1 Basic Research: $2.9 billion, up 6% over FY22
  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA): $4.05 billion, up 5.1% over FY22

Department of Energy (DOE)

  • Office of Science: $8.1 billion, up 8.4% over FY22
  • Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E): $470 million, up 4.4% over FY22
  • Quantum Information science (QIS) research: $245 million, including $120 million for basic research and $125 million for QIS research centers, all level funded from FY22

National Science Foundation (NSF)

  • $9.87 billion, up 11.7% over FY22**
  • QIS research: $235 million, including $185 million for basic research and $50 million for National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, up 6.8% over FY22
  • Expresses support for the newly established Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP). No specific funding is allocated. TIP will be funded out of the NSF Research & Related Activity account, which received a substantial (9.5%) increase in the bill.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

  • Science Mission Directorate: $7.8 billion, up 2.4% over FY22
  • Earth Science: $2.2 billion, up 6.6% over FY22

Department of Commerce (DOC)

  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR): $599.48 million, up 5% over FY21
  • NOAA Sea Grant Program: $76 million, up 9.4% over FY21
  • NIST Scientific and Technical Research Services (STRS): $890.5 million, up 4.7% over FY22
  • NIST QIS research: $54 million, up 10.2% over FY22
  • New Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs (CHIPS and Science Act): $500 million
  • Economic Development Administration (EDA) Build to Scale Program: $50 million, up 11.1% over FY22

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

  • National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Hatch Act Funds: $265 million, up 1.9% over FY22
  • NIFA Smith-Lever Funds: $325 million, up 1.5% over FY22
  • Agricultural and Food Research Initiative (AFRI): $455 million, up 2.2% over FY22
  • The Cooperative Forestry (McIntire-Stennis): $38 million, up 5.5% over FY22

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)

  • $207 million, up 15% over FY22

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)

  • $207 million, up 15% over FY22

Department of Education

  • Institute for Education Science (IES): $807.6 million, up 9.6% over FY22

Education

Pell Grants

  • The maximum Pell Grant award would increase by $500 (7.3%) to $7,395 for the 2023-24 school year

Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant (SEOG) Program

  • $910 million, up 1.7% over FY22

Federal Work Study Program (FWS)

  • $1.23 billion, up 1.7% over FY22

TRIO program

  • $1.19 billion, up 4.7% over FY22

**Congress provided $1.036 billion in supplemental (one-time) funding to bring NSF's total budget in FY23 to $9.87 billion. Within this amount, $700 million is for NSF base programming and $355 million is for CHIPS and Science Act implementation. It remains unclear whether or not Congress will build on this funding level for NSF in FY24 or if these supplemental funds will in fact be one-time funding.

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