Congress Passes FY 2015 Funding – Civilian Highlights, Part 2

Read our Civilian Highlights, Part 1.

Health and Human Services    

HHS funding is part of the broader Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriation which totals $156.8B in discretionary funding which is the same as FY 2014 enacted levels, $926M below the president’s budget request.  Deltek estimate the HHS portion of these appropriations to be $80B.  HHS highlights of the omnibus bill include the following:

• $2.7B in emergency funding to address the Ebola crisis.
• $3.6B for CMS management and operations, which is equal to the level put in place by sequestration and the same as the FY 2014 enacted levels.
• $6.9B for CDC for disease prevention and bio-defense research activities, $43M above FY 2014 program level.
• $30B for NIH, $150M above the FY 2014 level.
• $20M to combat prescription drug abuse around the country.
• The bill contains several provisions to protect life, continues all longstanding restrictions on abortion funding that have been included in appropriations legislation in prior years, and promotes abstinence education.
• $17.8B in discretionary resources for the Administration of Children and Families, which is a $108M increase.
• The bill provides no new funding for the Affordable Care Act.

Homeland Security

The Department of Homeland Security is the only department in the Omnibus that is not receiving funding through the remainder of FY 2015, i.e. September 30, 2015.  The Omnibus funds DHS with a continuing resolution at the FY 2014 annual level of $39.3B through February 27, 2015 as media reports indicate that the Republican majority will seek to influence the implementation of the president’s recent immigration policy actions.

Justice

Department of Justice funding of $26.7B marks a reduction of $600M below FY 2014 enacted levels.

• $25.8M for Justice Information Sharing Technology
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): $8.4B for the FBI increases resources by $93M over FY 2014 levels to support activities around counter-terrorism, cybersecurity, and human trafficking.
• Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA):  $2.4B marks an increase of $21M over the 2014 enacted level.
• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF): An increase of $22M above 2014 enacted levels brings ATF funds to $1.2B for 2015.
• National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Initiative grants: $73.0M in grants are provided to improve NICS records. These grants are expected to assist states in identifying and executing approaches to add more records to the system, particularly mental health records.
• Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs): New state laws promoting the increase of PDMP best practices around prescribing controlled substances maintain support for technical assistance for PDMPs, PDMP data users, and other key stakeholders.
• Additionally, DOJ is expected to identify and report on specific metrics related to cybercrime and cybersecurity efforts that may be measured.

State and International Programs

The Department of State and USAID appropriation of $49B includes $15.7B in base and contingency funding for operational costs of the State Department and related agencies, of which $5.4B is targeted for embassy security.

• $1.4B for USAID base and contingency funding
• $2.5B in Ebola emergency funding
• $8.4B in base and contingency funding for international security assistance

Go to Part 3 of Civilian Highlights, or check out our Defense Highlights of the FY 2015 Omnibus here.

Fellow GovWin Federal Industry Analysis (FIA) analysts Kyra Fussell, Angela Petty, and Alex Rossino contributed to this entry.