Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2015 Appropriations

Contents

• Introduction
• Report Roadmap and Useful Terminology
• Scope of the Report
• Important Budget Concepts
• Mandatory vs. Discretionary Appropriations
• Total Budget Authority Provided in the Bill vs. Total Budget Authority Available in the Fiscal Year
• Status of FY2015 Appropriations
• FY2015 Omnibus Appropriations
• Emergency Ebola Appropriations
• FY2015 Continuing Resolutions
• Congressional Actions on a Stand-Alone L-HHS-ED Bill
• FY2015 Action in the Senate
• FY2015 Action in the House
• FY2015 President's Budget Request
• Conclusion of the FY2014 Appropriations Process
• Summary of FY2015 L-HHS-ED Appropriations
• Department of Labor (DOL)
• About DOL
• FY2015 DOL Appropriations Overview
• Selected DOL Highlights
• Employment and Training Administration (ETA)
• Wage and Hour Division
• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
• Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
• About HHS
• FY2015 HHS Appropriations Overview
• Selected HHS Highlights
• Public Health Service Evaluation Tap
• Prevention and Public Health Fund
• HHS Highlights by Agency
• Funding Restrictions Related to Certain Controversial Issues
• Department of Education (ED)
• About ED
• FY2015 ED Appropriations Overview
• Selected ED Highlights
• Education for the Disadvantaged
• Impact Aid
• Innovation and Improvement
• Special Education
• Pell Grants
• Related Agencies
• FY2015 Related Agencies Appropriations Overview
• Selected Related Agencies Highlights

Summary

This report provides an overview of actions taken by Congress and the President to provide FY2015 appropriations for accounts funded by the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies (L-HHS-ED) appropriations bill. This bill provides funding for all accounts subject to the annual appropriations process at the Departments of Labor (DOL) and Education (ED). It provides annual appropriations for most agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with certain exceptions (e.g., the Food and Drug Administration is funded via the Agriculture bill). The L-HHS-ED bill also provides funds for more than a dozen related agencies, including the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Enacted Appropriations: On December 16, 2014, President Obama signed into law the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (P.L. 113-235), which provided FY2015 appropriations for L-HHS-ED in Division G. This law appropriated $164 billion in discretionary funding for L-HHS-ED (not counting emergency Ebola funds), which is roughly comparable to amounts provided in FY2014 (+0.05%) and the FY2015 President's request (-0.1%). In addition, the FY2015 omnibus provided an estimated $681 billion in mandatory L-HHS-ED funding, for a total of $846 billion for L-HHS-ED as a whole. The FY2015 omnibus followed three government-wide continuing resolutions (CRs), which provided temporary funding earlier in the fiscal year (P.L. 113-164, P.L. 113-202, and P.L. 113-203).

• DOL: The FY2015 omnibus provided roughly $11.9 billion in discretionary funding for DOL, roughly 0.8% less than the comparable FY2014 funding level of $12.0 billion.
• HHS: The FY2015 omnibus provided roughly $71.0 billion in discretionary funding for HHS, roughly 0.3% more than the comparable FY2014 funding level of $70.7 billion.
• ED: The FY2015 omnibus provided roughly $67.1 billion in discretionary funding for ED, roughly 0.2% less than the comparable FY2014 funding level of $67.3 billion.
• Related Agencies: The FY2015 omnibus provided roughly $14.2 billion in discretionary funding for L-HHS-ED related agencies, roughly 0.8% more than the comparable FY2014 funding level of $14.1 billion.

Earlier L-HHS-ED Congressional Action: Prior to the start of the fiscal year, the Senate Appropriations L-HHS-ED Subcommittee initiated action on a full-year FY2015 bill. On June 10, 2014, the Senate subcommittee approved an FY2015 L-HHS-ED appropriations bill by voice vote. This bill was not reported by the full committee. However, on July 24, 2014, the Senate Appropriations Committee released a copy of the subcommittee-approved bill and draft subcommittee report. The subcommittee-approved bill would have provided $167 billion in discretionary L-HHS-ED funds, which is about 2% more than the comparable FY2014 funding level and the FY2015 President's request. In addition, the Senate subcommittee bill would have provided an estimated $681 billion in mandatory funding, for a combined total of $848 billion for L-HHS-ED as a whole. The House did not take action on a stand-alone FY2015 L-HHS-ED bill.

President's Request: On March 4, 2014, the Obama Administration released its FY2015 budget. The President requested $164 billion in discretionary funding for accounts funded by the L-HHS-ED bill (0.2% more than comparable FY2014 levels). In addition, the President's budget requested roughly $681 billion in annually appropriated mandatory funding, for a total of roughly $846 billion (6% more than comparable FY2014 levels) for the L-HHS-ED bill as a whole.

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Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2015 Appropriations

Introduction

This report provides an overview of FY2015 appropriations actions for accounts traditionally funded in the appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies (L-HHS-ED). This bill provides discretionary and mandatory appropriations to three federal departments: the Department of Labor (DOL), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Department of Education (ED). In addition, the bill provides annual appropriations for more than a dozen related agencies, including the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Discretionary funds represent less than one-quarter of the total funds appropriated in the L-HHS-ED bill. Nevertheless, the L-HHS-ED bill is typically the largest single source of discretionary funds for domestic non-defense federal programs among the various appropriations bills (the Department of Defense bill is the largest source of discretionary funds among all federal programs). The bulk of this report is focused on discretionary appropriations because these funds receive the most attention during the appropriations process.

The L-HHS-ED bill typically is one of the more controversial of the regular appropriations bills because of the size of its funding total and the scope of its programs, as well as various related policy issues addressed in the bill such as restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion and for research on human embryos and stem cells.

See the Key Policy Staff table at the end of this report for information on which analysts to contact at the Congressional Research Service with questions on specific agencies and programs funded in the L-HHS-ED bill.

Report Roadmap and Useful Terminology

This report is divided into several sections. The opening section provides an explanation of the scope of the L-HHS-ED bill (and hence, the scope of this report), as well as an introduction to important terminology and concepts that carry throughout the report.

Next is a series of sections describing major congressional actions on FY2015 appropriations and (for context) a review of the conclusion of the FY2014 appropriations process.

The following section provides a high-level summary and analysis of proposed and enacted mandatory and discretionary appropriations for FY2015, compared to comparable FY2014 funding levels.

The body of the report concludes with overview sections for each of the major components of the bill: the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and Related Agencies. These sections provide selected highlights of the FY2015 omnibus, compared to proposed appropriations in the Senate subcommittee-approved stand-alone FY2015 L-HHS-ED bill, the FY2015 President's request, and comparable FY2014 levels.

Finally, an Appendix provides a summary of budget enforcement activities for FY2015. This includes information on the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA; P.L. 112-25) and sequestration, as well as procedural efforts related to budget resolutions and subcommittee spending allocations.

Scope of the Report

This report is focused strictly on appropriations to agencies and accounts that are subject to the jurisdiction of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittees of the House and the Senate Appropriations Committees (i.e., accounts traditionally funded via the L-HHS-ED bill). Department "totals" provided in this report do not include funding for accounts or agencies that are traditionally funded by appropriations bills under the jurisdiction of other subcommittees.

The L-HHS-ED bill provides appropriations for the following federal departments and agencies:

• the Department of Labor;
• the majority of the Department of Health and Human Services, except for the Food and Drug Administration (provided in the Agriculture appropriations bill), the Indian Health Service (provided in the Interior-Environment appropriations bill), and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (also funded through the Interior-Environment appropriations bill);
• the Department of Education; and
• more than a dozen related agencies, including the Social Security Administration, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Railroad Retirement Board.

Note also that funding totals displayed in this report do not reflect amounts provided outside of the regular appropriations process. Certain direct spending programs, such as Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance and parts of Medicare, receive funding directly from their authorizing statutes; such funds are not reflected in the totals provided in this report because they are not subject to the regular appropriations process (see related discussion in the "Important Budget Concepts" section).

Important Budget Concepts

Mandatory vs. Discretionary Appropriations¹

The L-HHS-ED bill includes both discretionary and mandatory appropriations. While all discretionary spending is subject to the annual appropriations process, only a portion of mandatory spending is provided in appropriations measures.

Mandatory programs funded through the annual appropriations process are commonly referred to as appropriated entitlements. In general, appropriators have little control over the amounts provided for appropriated entitlements; rather, the authorizing statute controls the program parameters (e.g., eligibility rules, benefit levels) that entitle certain recipients to payments. If Congress does not appropriate the money necessary to meet these commitments, entitled recipients (e.g., individuals, states, or other entities) may have legal recourse.²

Most mandatory spending is not provided through the annual appropriations process, but rather through direct spending budget authority provided by the program's authorizing statute (e.g., Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance). The funding amounts in this report do not include direct spending budget authority provided outside of the appropriations process. Instead, the amounts reflect only those funds, discretionary and mandatory, that are provided through appropriations acts.

Note that, as displayed in this report, mandatory amounts for the FY2015 President's request reflect current law (or current services) estimates; they do not include any of the Administration's proposed changes to a program's authorizing statute that might affect total spending. (In general, such proposals are excluded from this report, as they typically require authorizing legislation.)

Note also that the report focuses most closely on discretionary funding. This is because discretionary funding receives the bulk of attention during the appropriations process. (As noted earlier, although the L-HHS-ED bill includes more mandatory funding than discretionary funding, the appropriators generally have less flexibility in adjusting mandatory funding levels than discretionary funding levels.)

Total Budget Authority Provided in the Bill vs. Total Budget Authority Available in the Fiscal Year

Budget authority is the amount of money Congress allows a federal agency to commit or spend. Appropriations bills may include budget authority that becomes available in the current fiscal year, in future fiscal years, or some combination. Amounts that become available in future fiscal years are typically referred to as advance appropriations.

Unless otherwise specified, appropriations levels displayed in this report refer to the total amount of budget authority provided in an appropriations bill (i.e., "total in the bill"), regardless of the year in which the funding becomes available.³ In some cases, the report breaks out "current-year" appropriations (i.e., the amount of budget authority available for obligation in a given fiscal year, regardless of the year in which it was first appropriated).⁴

As the annual appropriations process unfolds, current-year appropriations plus any additional adjustments for congressional scorekeeping are measured against 302(b) allocation ceilings (budget enforcement caps for appropriations subcommittees that traditionally emerge following the budget resolution process). Unless otherwise specified, appropriations levels displayed in this report do not reflect additional scorekeeping adjustments, which are made by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to reflect conventions and special instructions of Congress.⁵

Status of FY2015 Appropriations

Table 1 provides a timeline of major legislative actions toward full-year FY2015 L-HHS-ED appropriations. The remainder of this section provides additional detail on these and other steps toward full-year L-HHS-ED appropriations.

FY2015 Omnibus Appropriations

On December 16, 2014, President Obama signed into law the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (P.L. 113-235). The final version of this bill was agreed to in the House on December 11 and in the Senate on December 13. The enacted law provided regular, full-year appropriations for 11 of the 12 annual appropriations bills, including L-HHS-ED (see Division G).

This law appropriated $164 billion in discretionary funding for L-HHS-ED (not counting emergency Ebola funds), which is roughly comparable to amounts provided in FY2014 (+0.05%) and the FY2015 President's request (-0.1%). In addition, the FY2015 omnibus provided an estimated $681 billion in mandatory L-HHS-ED funding, for a total of $846 billion for L-HHS-ED as a whole. (See Figure 1 for the breakdown of discretionary and mandatory L-HHS-ED appropriations in the FY2015 omnibus.)

Figure 1. FY2015 Omnibus Appropriations for Labor, HHS, ED, and Related Agencies

Source: CRS amounts are estimated based on data provided in the joint explanatory statement accompanying the FY2015 omnibus (P.L. 113-235). For consistency with source materials, the FY2015 enacted levels do not reflect sequestration for nonexempt mandatory spending programs, where applicable, or any transfers or reprogramming of funds that may have occurred pursuant to executive authorities. Totals do not include emergency Ebola funds appropriated to HHS in Division G, Title VI ($2.7 billion). Notes: Details may not add to totals due to rounding. Amounts in this figure (1) reflect all budget authority appropriated in the bill, regardless of the year in which funds become available (i.e., totals do not include advances from prior-year appropriations, but do include advances for subsequent years provided in this bill); (2) have generally not been adjusted to reflect scorekeeping; (3) comprise only those funds proposed for agencies and accounts subject to the jurisdiction of the L-HHS-ED Subcommittees of the House and the Senate Committees on Appropriations; and (4) do not include direct appropriations that occur outside of appropriations bills.

Emergency Ebola Appropriations

In addition to non-emergency L-HHS-ED appropriations, the omnibus also provided $2.7 billion in emergency-designated funding to HHS in response to the Ebola outbreak in Africa (see Division G, Title VI).⁶ These funds were distributed as follows:

• $1.8 billion to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for activities to enhance domestic preparedness, support overseas operations to end the Ebola epidemic, and prevent the spread of Ebola and other infectious diseases;
• $238 million to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for clinical trials on experimental Ebola vaccines and treatments; and
• $733 million to the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund, which is administered within the HHS Office of the Secretary, for drug and vaccine development and domestic hospital preparedness.⁷

FY2015 Continuing Resolutions

The FY2015 omnibus followed three government-wide continuing resolutions (CRs), which had provided temporary funding earlier in the fiscal year (P.L. 113-203, P.L. 113-202, P.L. 113-164). With limited exceptions, these CRs generally funded discretionary L-HHS-ED programs at the same rate and under the same conditions as in the FY2014 omnibus (P.L. 113-76), minus an across-the-board reduction of 0.0554%. Mandatory programs covered by these CRs were generally continued at current law levels, less sequestration (where applicable).

The first FY2015 CR (P.L. 113-164) included several special provisions for L-HHS-ED. Of particular note, this CR provided $88 million in new non-emergency discretionary appropriations to HHS in response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, including $30 million for the CDC Global Health Fund and $58 million for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund within the Office of the Secretary.

Congressional Actions on a Stand-Alone L-HHS-ED Bill

FY2015 Action in the Senate

On June 10, 2014, the Senate L-HHS-ED Subcommittee approved an FY2015 bill by voice vote. The bill was not marked up by the full committee, but on July 24, the Senate Appropriations Committee released a copy of the subcommittee-approved bill and draft subcommittee report.⁸ These draft materials suggest that the subcommittee-approved bill would have provided $167 billion in discretionary funding for L-HHS-ED. This is about 2% more than the comparable FY2014 funding level and the FY2015 President's request. In addition, the Senate subcommittee-approved bill would have provided an estimated $681 billion in mandatory funding, for a combined total of nearly $848 billion for L-HHS-ED as a whole.

FY2015 Action in the House

The House did not hold a subcommittee or full committee markup for a stand-alone FY2015 L-HHS-ED appropriations bill. However, on September 15, 2014, Representative Rosa DeLauro, ranking Member of the House Appropriations L-HHS-ED Subcommittee, introduced an FY2015 L-HHS-ED bill (H.R. 5464). As this bill was not taken up by the subcommittee, it is not discussed further in this report.

FY2015 President's Budget Request

On March 4, 2014, the Obama Administration released the FY2015 President's budget. The President requested $164 billion in discretionary funding for accounts funded by the L-HHS-ED bill (0.2% more than comparable FY2014 levels). In addition, the President's budget requested roughly $681 billion in annually appropriated mandatory funding, for a total of roughly $846 billion (6% more than comparable FY2014 levels) for the L-HHS-ED bill as a whole.

Conclusion of the FY2014 Appropriations Process

On January 17, 2014, President Obama signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-76), providing omnibus appropriations for FY2014 (see Division H for L-HHS-ED). This law provided $164 billion in discretionary funding for L-HHS-ED. In addition, the FY2014 omnibus provided an estimated $636 billion in mandatory L-HHS-ED funding, for a total of $800 billion for L-HHS-ED as a whole.

Summary of FY2015 L-HHS-ED Appropriations

Table 2 displays the total amount of FY2015 discretionary and mandatory L-HHS-ED funding provided or proposed, by title, as well as comparable FY2014 funding levels. The amounts shown in this table reflect total budget authority provided in the bill (i.e., all funds appropriated in the current bill, regardless of the fiscal year in which the funds become available), not total budget authority available for the current fiscal year. (For a comparable table showing current-year budget authority, see Table A-2 in the Appendix.)

When taking into account both mandatory and discretionary funding (non-emergency), HHS received roughly 82% of total L-HHS-ED appropriations in FY2015 (see Figure 2). This is largely due to the sizable amount of mandatory funds included in the HHS appropriation, the majority of which is for Medicaid grants to states and payments to health care trust funds. After HHS, ED and the Related Agencies represent the next-largest shares of total L-HHS-ED funding, accounting for about 8% apiece in FY2015. The majority of the appropriations for ED are discretionary, while the bulk of funding for the Related Agencies goes toward mandatory payments and administrative costs of the Supplemental Security Income program at the Social Security Administration. Finally, DOL accounts for the smallest share of total L-HHS-ED funds: roughly 2% in FY2015.

When looking only at discretionary appropriations (non-emergency), however, the overall composition of L-HHS-ED funding is noticeably different (see Figure 2). HHS accounts for a comparatively smaller share of total discretionary appropriations (43% in FY2015), while ED accounts for a relatively larger share (41% in FY2015). Together, these two departments represent the majority (84%) of discretionary L-HHS-ED appropriations in FY2015. Meanwhile, DOL and Related Agencies combine to account for a roughly even split of the remaining 16% of discretionary L-HHS-ED funds in FY2015.

Figure 2. FY2015 Omnibus L-HHS-ED Appropriations, by Title

Source: Amounts are estimated by CRS based on data provided in the joint explanatory statement accompanying the FY2015 omnibus (P.L. 113-235). For consistency with source materials, the FY2015 enacted levels do not reflect sequestration for nonexempt mandatory spending programs, where applicable, or any transfers or reprogramming of funds that may have occurred pursuant to executive authorities. Totals do not include emergency Ebola funds appropriated to HHS in Division G, Title VI. Notes: Details may not add to totals due to rounding. Amounts in this table (1) reflect all budget authority appropriated in the bill, regardless of the year in which funds become available (i.e., totals do not include advances from prior-year appropriations, but do include advances for subsequent years provided in this bill); (2) have generally not been adjusted to reflect scorekeeping; (3) comprise only those funds provided (or requested) for agencies and accounts subject to the jurisdiction of the L-HHS-ED Subcommittees of the House and the Senate Committees on Appropriations; and (4) do not include direct appropriations that occur outside of appropriations bills.

Department of Labor (DOL)

Note that all figures in this section are based on regular L-HHS-ED appropriations only; they do not include funds provided outside of the annual appropriations process (e.g., direct appropriations for Unemployment Insurance benefits payments). All amounts in this section are rounded to the nearest million or billion (as labeled). The dollar changes and percentage changes discussed in the text are based on unrounded amounts.

About DOL

DOL is a federal department comprised of multiple entities that provide services related to employment and training, worker protection, income security, and contract enforcement. Annual L-HHS-ED appropriations laws direct funding to all DOL entities (see box for all entities supported by the L-HHS-ED bill).¹⁰ The DOL entities fall primarily into two main functional areas—workforce development and worker protection. First, there are several DOL entities that administer workforce employment and training programs, such as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) state formula grant programs, Job Corps, and the Employment Service, that provide direct funding for employment activities or administration of income security programs (e.g., for the Unemployment Insurance benefits program).¹¹ Also included in this area is the Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS), which provides employment services specifically for the veteran population. Second, there are several agencies that provide various worker protection services. For example, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), and the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) provide different types of regulation and oversight of working conditions. DOL entities focused on worker protection provide services to ensure worker safety, adherence to wage and overtime laws, and contract compliance, among other duties. In addition to these two main functional areas, DOL's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects data and provides analysis on the labor market and related labor issues.

FY2015 DOL Appropriations Overview

The FY2015 omnibus provided roughly $13.35 billion in combined mandatory and discretionary funding for DOL. This is about $772 million (-5.5%) less than the comparable FY2014 funding level and $250 million (-1.8%) less than the FY2015 President's request. (See Table 3.) Of the total provided for DOL in the FY2015 omnibus, roughly $11.95 billion (90%) is discretionary. This amount is $98 million (-0.8%) less than the comparable FY2014 discretionary funding level and $255 million (-2.1%) less than the discretionary total requested in the FY2015 President's budget.

Selected DOL Highlights

The following are some DOL highlights from the FY2015 omnibus compared to comparable FY2014 funding levels and proposed funding levels from the FY2015 President's budget.¹²

Employment and Training Administration (ETA)

The main functions of ETA are administering the major federal workforce development programs and providing support for state operations of the unemployment insurance system. Readers should be aware that in July 2014, the President signed into law the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA, P.L. 113-128). This law replaced and updated the majority of programs previously authorized under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA, P.L. 105-220), as amended.

The FY2015 omnibus provided $4.8 billion for programs authorized under Title I of the WIOA, which is $38 million more than the comparable FY2014 funding level for WIA predecessor programs. The FY2015 omnibus also superseded a WIOA provision related to the statutory limit for the governors' reserve of WIOA state formula grants. Under the WIOA, this limit is set at 15% of the total received from the three state formula grants—Adult, Youth, and Dislocated Workers. However, the FY2015 omnibus lowered this reserve limit to 10% of the WIOA state formula grants.¹³

The FY2015 omnibus provided the Secretary of Labor the authority to transfer up to 10% of the funds appropriated for the WIOA Dislocated Workers' National Reserve to provide technical assistance and other activities related to the transition from the WIA to the WIOA, the provisions of which mostly take effect July 1, 2015.

The joint explanatory statement accompanying the FY2015 omnibus required the Secretary of Labor to submit semiannual updates to the House and the Senate Committees on Appropriations on the Department of Labor's progress on implementing recent DOL Office of Inspector General's (OIG) recommendations that cover financial management and controls for the Job Corps program.¹⁴

The FY2015 omnibus continued a provision from the FY2014 appropriations law allowing the Secretary of Labor to reserve up to 0.5% of each appropriation made available in certain accounts for the purpose of program evaluation, rather than providing a specific appropriation of funds for this purpose.¹⁵

Wage and Hour Division

The FY2015 omnibus altered the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) with respect to overtime provisions for certain workers. In general, Section 207 of the FLSA requires that employees working more than 40 hours per week be compensated at one-and-a-half times the regular rate of pay. However, the omnibus will exclude certain insurance claims adjusters from these overtime provisions for a period of two years following the occurrence of a major disaster.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

The joint explanatory statement accompanying the FY2015 omnibus directed BLS to report, within 180 days of enactment of the law, to the House and the Senate Committees on Appropriations on ways that collecting and reporting data for Metropolitan Statistical Areas within the Current Employment Statistics program can be improved. The law also required BLS to estimate the costs associated with such improvements.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Note that all figures in this section are based on regular L-HHS-ED appropriations only; they do not include funds for HHS agencies provided through other appropriations bills (e.g., funding for the Food and Drug Administration) or outside of the annual appropriations process (e.g., direct appropriations for Medicare or pre-appropriated mandatory funds provided by authorizing laws, such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA, P.L. 111-148)).¹⁶ All amounts in this section are rounded to the nearest million or billion (as labeled). The dollar changes and percentage changes discussed in the text are based on unrounded amounts.

About HHS

HHS is a sprawling federal department comprised of multiple agencies working to enhance the health and well-being of Americans. Annual L-HHS-ED appropriations laws direct funding to most (but not all) HHS agencies (see box, below, for all agencies supported by the L-HHS-ED bill).¹⁷ For instance, the L-HHS-ED bill directs funding to five Public Health Service (PHS) agencies: the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).¹⁸ These public health agencies support diverse missions, ranging from the provision of health care services and supports (e.g., HRSA, SAMHSA), to the advancement of health care quality and medical research (e.g., AHRQ, NIH), to the prevention and control of infectious and chronic diseases (e.g., CDC). In addition, the L-HHS-ED bill provides funding for annually appropriated components of CMS,¹⁹ which is the HHS agency responsible for the administration of Medicare, Medicaid, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and consumer protections and private health insurance provisions of the ACA. The L-HHS-ED bill also provides funding for two HHS agencies focused primarily on the provision of social services: the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Administration for Community Living (ACL). ACF's mission is to promote the economic and social well-being of vulnerable children, youth, families, and communities. ACL was formed with a goal of increasing access to community supports for older Americans and people with disabilities. Notably, ACL is a relatively new agency within HHS—it was established in April 2012 and brings together the Administration on Aging, the Office of Disability, and the Administration on Developmental Disabilities (renamed the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities) into one agency.²⁰ Finally, the L-HHS-ED bill also provides funding for the HHS Office of the Secretary (OS), which encompasses a broad array of management, research, oversight, and emergency preparedness functions in support of the entire department.

FY2015 HHS Appropriations Overview

The FY2015 omnibus provided roughly $692 billion in combined mandatory and discretionary funding for HHS (not counting emergency Ebola-related funding). This is about $45.89 billion (+7.1%) more than the comparable FY2014 funding level and $1.68 billion (+0.2%) more than the FY2015 request. (See Table 5.) Of the total provided for HHS in the FY2015 omnibus, roughly $70.97 billion (10%) is discretionary. This amount is $227 million (+0.3%) more than the comparable FY2014 discretionary funding level and $1.68 billion (+2.4%) more than the discretionary total requested in the FY2015 President's budget.

Annual HHS appropriations are dominated by mandatory funding, the majority of which goes to CMS to provide Medicaid benefits and payments to health care trust funds. When taking into account both mandatory and discretionary funding, CMS accounted for roughly 88% of all HHS appropriations in FY2015. ACF and NIH accounted for the next-largest shares of total HHS appropriations, receiving 4% apiece in FY2015.

By contrast, when looking exclusively at discretionary appropriations, CMS constituted only 6% of HHS funding in FY2015. Instead, the bulk of discretionary appropriations went to the PHS agencies, which combined to account for 63% in FY2015. NIH typically receives the largest share of all discretionary funding among HHS agencies (41% in FY2015), with ACF accounting for the second-largest share (25% in FY2015).

See Figure 3 for an agency-level breakdown of HHS appropriations (combined mandatory and discretionary) in the FY2015 omnibus.

Figure 3. FY2015 Omnibus Appropriations to HHS by Agency

Source: Amounts are estimated by CRS based on data provided in the joint explanatory statement accompanying the FY2015 omnibus (P.L. 113-235). For consistency with source materials, the FY2015 enacted levels do not reflect sequestration for nonexempt mandatory spending programs, where applicable, or any transfers or reprogramming of funds that may have occurred pursuant to executive authorities. Totals do not include emergency Ebola funds appropriated to HHS in Division G, Title VI. Notes: Details may not add to totals due to rounding. Amounts in this figure (1) reflect all budget authority appropriated in the bill, regardless of the year in which funds become available (i.e., totals do not include advances from prior-year appropriations, but do include advances for subsequent years provided in this bill); (2) have generally not been adjusted to reflect scorekeeping; (3) comprise only those funds proposed for agencies and accounts subject to the jurisdiction of the L-HHS-ED Subcommittees of the House and the Senate Committees on Appropriations; and (4) do not include direct appropriations that occur outside of appropriations bills.

Selected HHS Highlights

This section discusses several important aspects of discretionary HHS appropriations. First, it provides an introduction to two special funding mechanisms included in the public health budget, the Public Health Service Evaluation Set-Aside and the Prevention and Public Health Fund. Next, it reviews a limited selection of FY2015 discretionary funding highlights across HHS. The section concludes with a brief overview of significant provisions from annual HHS appropriations laws that restrict spending in certain controversial areas, such as abortion and stem cell research.

Public Health Service Evaluation Tap

The Public Health Service (PHS) Evaluation Set-Aside, also known as the PHS Evaluation Tap, is a unique feature of HHS appropriations. The Evaluation Tap, which is authorized by Section 241 of the Public Health Service Act, allows the Secretary of HHS, with the approval of appropriators, to redistribute a portion of eligible PHS agency appropriations across HHS for program evaluation purposes. The Public Health Service Act limits the set-aside to 1% of eligible program appropriations. However, in recent years, L-HHS-ED appropriations laws have established a higher maximum percentage for the set-aside and have distributed specific amounts of "tap" funding to selected HHS programs. The FY2015 omnibus maintained the set-aside level at 2.5% of eligible appropriations, the same percentage as FY2014, and rejected the FY2015 President's budget proposal to increase the set-aside to 3.0%.²¹

Traditionally, the tap has provided more than a dozen HHS programs with funding beyond their regular appropriations and, in some cases, it has been the sole source of funding for a program or activity. However, the FY2015 omnibus broke with recent precedents on the distribution of tap funds in several ways. For instance, the omnibus directed tap funds to only about a half dozen programs or activities within just three HHS agencies (NIH, SAMHSA, and OS). Moreover, unlike years past, the omnibus directed the largest share of tap transfers ($715 million) to NIH. While NIH is by far the largest "donor" of tap funds (the agency's annual discretionary appropriations exceed that of all the other PHS agencies combined), it has historically received a relatively small share of funding from the tap. The joint explanatory statement accompanying the FY2015 omnibus explains that this shift is to ensure that tap transfers are a "net benefit to NIH rather than a liability" and notes that this change is in response to a "growing concern" at the loss of NIH funds to the tap.²²

Readers should note that, by convention, tables in this report show only the amount of PHS Evaluation Tap funds received by an agency (i.e., tables do not subtract the amount of the evaluation tap from donor agencies' appropriations). That is to say, tap amounts shown in the following tables are in addition to amounts shown for budget authority, but the amounts shown for budget authority have not been adjusted to reflect potential "transfer-out" of funds to the tap.

Prevention and Public Health Fund

The ACA authorized and directly appropriated mandatory funding for three multi-billion dollar trust funds to support programs and activities within the PHS agencies.²³ One of these, the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF, ACA Section 4002, as amended), is intended to provide support each year to prevention, wellness, and related public health programs funded through HHS accounts.²⁴ For FY2015, the ACA directly appropriated $2 billion in mandatory funds to the PPHF, but this amount was later reduced to $1 billion by the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-96), which decreased total PPHF appropriations by $6.25 billion over the course of FY2013-FY2021. In addition, the FY2015 PPHF appropriation was further reduced by 7.3% due to sequestration of nonexempt mandatory spending (see budget enforcement discussion in the Appendix).

PPHF funds are intended to supplement (sometimes quite substantially) the funding that selected programs receive through regular appropriations, as well as to fund new programs, particularly those newly authorized in the ACA. The Administration's annual budget request sets out the intended distribution and use of PPHF funds for that fiscal year. The ACA instructs the Secretary to transfer amounts from the PPHF to agencies for prevention, wellness, and public health activities. The funds are available to the Secretary at the beginning of each fiscal year. For FY2014 and FY2015, Congress explicitly directed the Secretary to distribute PPHF funds to specific accounts, in specified amounts.²⁵ Similar to prior years, most of the FY2015 distribution ($887 million) was provided to CDC, including $210 million for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and $452 million for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

HHS Highlights by Agency

The discussion below reviews a limited selection of FY2015 discretionary funding highlights for programs supported by the HHS agencies funded in the L-HHS-ED bill. The discussion is largely based on the FY2015 omnibus, compared to comparable FY2014 funding levels and proposed funding levels from the FY2015 President's budget.²⁶

HRSA

The FY2015 omnibus provided $6.1 billion in discretionary funding for HRSA. This amount is $64 million (+1.1%) more than HRSA's comparable FY2014 funding level and $812 million (+15.3%) more than the FY2015 President's request. Consistent with recent practice, the FY2015 omnibus did not provide funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC); instead, the NHSC has been supported with funds that were authorized and directly appropriated by the ACA.²⁷ The omnibus provided $265 million (0.3% more than comparable FY2014 levels) for the Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) Payment Program, rejecting the FY2015 President's budget proposal to eliminate funding for the CHGME Payment Program and instead establish a new Targeted Support for Graduate Medical Education Program, which would have incorporated the CHGME program.

CDC

The FY2015 omnibus provided $6.0 billion in discretionary funding for CDC, not including emergency funding for Ebola. This amount is $177 million (+3.1%) more than CDC's comparable FY2014 funding level and $568 million (+10.5%) more than the FY2015 President's request. The omnibus increased discretionary budget authority for several CDC programs and activities including Injury Prevention and Control (13.3% more than FY2014) and Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases (4.5% more than FY2014). Notably, in a break from recent years' practice, the FY2015 omnibus did not direct any PHS tap funds to CDC ($211 million less than FY2014). However, the joint explanatory statement accompanying the omnibus allocated CDC its largest share of PPHF funds to date: $887 million (14.8% more than FY2014). In some cases, the elimination of PHS evaluation tap transfers to particular CDC activities was offset by increases in budget authority or PPHF transfers. For instance, the omnibus appropriated $335 million ($115 million, or 52.0%, more than comparable FY2014 levels) in discretionary budget authority for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which more than offset the elimination of $112 million in tap transfers.

In addition to the funds above, CDC received $1.8 billion in emergency-designated Ebola funding in Division G, Title VI of the FY2015 omnibus, as well as $30 million in non-emergency Ebola funds from the first FY2015 CR.²⁸ These funds were provided in response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and are intended to support domestic preparedness activities and overseas operations to end the Ebola epidemic and prevent the spread of Ebola or other infectious diseases.

NIH

The FY2015 omnibus provided $29.4 billion in discretionary budget authority for NIH, not including emergency funding for Ebola. This is $476 million (-1.6%) less than the comparable FY2014 funding level for NIH and nearly $757 million (-2.5%) less than the FY2015 President's request. Notably, the FY2015 omnibus augmented NIH's budget authority with $715 million in transfers from the PHS Evaluation Tap ($707 million more than FY2014) and directed this entire amount to one NIH institute, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). The PHS Evaluation Tap transfer to NIGMS offset a decrease of $709 million in the institute's discretionary budget authority compared to FY2014.

In addition to the funds above, NIH received $238 million in emergency Ebola funding in Division G, Title VI, of the FY2015 omnibus.²⁹ These funds were provided in response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and are intended to support clinical trials on experimental Ebola vaccines and treatments.

SAMHSA

The FY2015 omnibus provided $3.5 billion in discretionary budget authority for SAMHSA. This is nearly $49 million (+1.4%) more than SAMHSA's comparable FY2014 funding level and $176 million (+5.3%) more than the FY2015 President's request. The omnibus augmented total SAMHSA funding with $134 million (0.8% more than comparable FY2014 levels) in transfers from the PHS Evaluation Tap, spreading these transfers across four SAMHSA programs and activities. The joint explanatory statement accompanying the omnibus directed $362 million in discretionary budget authority to SAMHSA's Substance Abuse Treatment Programs of Regional and National Significance (PRNS). This represents an increase of $51 million (+16.3%) from comparable FY2014 levels, roughly offsetting the elimination of congressionally directed PPHF transfers to the Substance Abuse PRNS in FY2015 ($50 million less than comparable FY2014). The FY2015 omnibus retained provisions, first instituted in the FY2014 omnibus, authorizing SAMHSA to collect user fees for certain costs of publications, data, and data analysis.

AHRQ

The FY2015 omnibus provided $364 million in discretionary budget authority for AHRQ. (The omnibus provided no PHS Evaluation Tap funds for AHRQ in FY2015.) The FY2015 appropriation of $364 million is the same amount AHRQ received in PHS Evaluation Tap transfers in FY2014 and is $30 million (+8.9%) more than the FY2015 President's request for PHS Evaluation Tap transfers to AHRQ. The joint explanatory statement accompanying the omnibus directed the majority of AHRQ's discretionary budget authority ($229 million) toward research on health costs, quality, and outcomes.

Notably, this is the first time since FY2002 that an annual L-HHS-ED bill has provided discretionary appropriations for AHRQ. Between FY2003 and FY2014, AHRQ's only discretionary appropriation was a special one-time funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, P.L. 111-5). Instead, funding for AHRQ's programs has been generally provided by transfers from other sources, including the PHS Evaluation Tap, the PPHF, and another mandatory trust fund established by the ACA.³⁰

CMS

The FY2015 omnibus provided $4.3 billion in discretionary budget authority for CMS. This is $45 million (-1%) less than the comparable FY2014 funding level for CMS and nearly $177 million (-4%) less than the FY2015 President's request. The omnibus appropriated $672 million for Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) activities (130% more than comparable FY2014 levels). Of the total amount appropriated for HCFAC, $361 million was provided through a budget cap adjustment authorized by the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, as amended. Meanwhile, the Program Management account received by far the largest share of discretionary CMS appropriations, $3.7 billion (10% less than comparable FY2014 levels). These funds support program operations (e.g., claims processing, information technology investments, provider and beneficiary outreach and education, and program implementation), as well as federal administration and other activities.

Notably, the omnibus included a new general provision (Division G, Title II, §227) to prevent certain funds from being used to make risk corridor payments associated with health insurance exchanges (or marketplaces) established by the ACA. In general, a risk corridor is a mechanism for sharing financial risk (unexpectedly high gains and losses) between the federal government and insurers when market changes make estimating premiums harder for insurers. The ACA requires HHS to administer a risk corridor program for qualified health plans offered through health insurance exchanges in calendar years 2014-2016. Through this program, HHS must make payments to insurers who experience high losses, while insurers who experience high gains must remit a portion of those gains to HHS. HHS expects that this risk corridor program will be budget neutral (i.e., HHS expects that risk corridor collections from insurers will be sufficient to cover all risk corridor payments issued by HHS).³¹ However, in May 2014, HHS stated that "other sources of funding" would be used to make federal risk corridor payments for program year 2015 if collections from insurers were insufficient to cover federal payments.³² The new general provision in the FY2015 omnibus limits the sources of funding that could be used in the event of a funding shortfall by prohibiting HHS from making risk corridor payments with funds appropriated to the CMS Program Management account from the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund or the Federal Supplemental Medical Insurance Trust Fund, or funds transferred to the Program Management account from other accounts funded by the omnibus.

ACF

The FY2015 omnibus provided $17.8 billion in discretionary budget authority for ACF. This is nearly $113 million (+0.6%) more than ACF's comparable FY2014 funding level and $751 million (+4.4%) more than the FY2015 President's request. The omnibus provided nearly $1.6 billion for Refugee and Entrant Assistance Programs (2.0% more than the comparable FY2014 level). The joint explanatory statement accompanying the omnibus expressed an expectation that the majority of these funds ($948 million; 4% more than the comparable FY2014 level) will be directed toward the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) program, which provides shelter and support services to unaccompanied alien children who have been apprehended in the United States. The increased funding for the UAC program reflects the growing number of unaccompanied alien children arriving in this country, up from about 16,100 in FY2011 to roughly 68,600 in FY2014, according to the U.S Border Patrol.³³ In addition, the omnibus included a new provision allowing HHS to augment appropriations for the Refugee and Entrant Assistance account by up to 10% via transfers from other discretionary HHS funds. This provision is noteworthy because it is an exception from a general provision restricting transfers from augmenting the discretionary appropriations of any HHS account by more than 3%.³⁴

ACL

The FY2015 omnibus provided $1.7 billion in discretionary budget authority for ACL. This is roughly $18 million (+1%) more than ACL's comparable FY2014 funding level and $9 million (-0.5%) less than the President's request.³⁵ The joint explanatory statement accompanying the omnibus called for $8 million to be directed toward Elder Rights Support Activities (105% more than FY2014), including $4 million for a new Elder Justice Initiative to provide competitive grants to states to test innovative approaches to preventing and responding to elder abuse. (The Administration had requested $25 million for a stand-alone Elder Justice initiative to be funded separately from Elder Rights Support Activities.) This is the first time funds have been appropriated for activities under the Elder Justice Act, which was enacted by the ACA in 2010. In addition, the joint explanatory statement reserved $10 million for Aging Network Support Activities (34% more than FY2014), including $2.5 million to provide supportive services for aging Holocaust survivors in the United States.

While the omnibus rejected the FY2015 President's budget proposal to transfer the Community Service Employment for Older Americans program from DOL to HHS/ACL, it included or affirmed several new administrative requirements for ACL. For instance, the omnibus transferred funding and administrative responsibility for the Limb Loss Resource Center from CDC to ACL. Additionally, readers should be aware that the WIOA called for several programs authorized by the Rehabilitation Act and the Assistive Technology Act to be transferred from ED to HHS/ACL. Although the omnibus appropriated funds for these programs to ED, the law included a new general provision (Division G, Title V, §528) requiring ED to transfer funds for these programs to HHS.

Funding Restrictions Related to Certain Controversial Issues

Annual L-HHS-ED appropriations regularly contain restrictions related to certain controversial issues. For instance, annual appropriations laws generally include provisions limiting the circumstances under which L-HHS-ED funds (including Medicaid funds) may be used to pay for abortions. Under current provisions, (1) abortions may be funded only when the life of the mother is endangered or in cases of rape or incest; (2) funds may not be used to buy a managed care package that includes abortion coverage, except in cases of rape, incest, or endangerment; and (3) federal programs and state and local governments that receive L-HHS-ED funding are prohibited from discriminating against health care entities that do not provide or pay for abortions or abortion services.³⁶ Similarly, annual appropriations since FY1997 have included a provision prohibiting L-HHS-ED funds (including NIH funds) from being used to create human embryos for research purposes or for research in which human embryos are destroyed.³⁷ The FY2015 omnibus maintained each of these provisions for FY2015.³⁸

The FY2012 appropriations law reinstated a provision, removed in FY2010, prohibiting L-HHS-ED funds from being used for needle exchange programs.³⁹ This provision has been maintained in appropriations laws for each subsequent year, including FY2015.⁴⁰ The FY2012 appropriations law also expanded a provision prohibiting CDC spending on activities that advocate or promote gun control so that it applied to all HHS appropriations and added a new, broader provision prohibiting the use of any L-HHS-ED funds (plus funds transferred from the PPHF) for the promotion of gun control.⁴¹ These provisions have been maintained in appropriations laws for each subsequent year, most recently in FY2015.⁴²

The tables below provide more detailed information on FY2015 enacted funding levels for HHS, compared to FY2015 proposed and FY2014 comparable funding levels. Table 6 presents total HHS funding levels by agency. Table 7 presents discretionary funding levels for a selection of HHS programs, projects, or activities, by agency.

Department of Education (ED)

Note that all figures in this section are based on regular L-HHS-ED appropriations only; they do not include funds provided outside of the annual appropriations process (e.g., certain direct appropriations for Federal Direct Student Loans and Pell Grants). All amounts in this section are rounded to the nearest million or billion (as labeled). The dollar changes and percentage changes discussed in the text are based on unrounded amounts.

About ED

The federal government provides support for elementary and secondary education, as well as postsecondary education. With regard to elementary and secondary education, the federal government provides roughly 11% of overall funding; the vast majority of funding comes from states and local districts.⁴³ States and school districts also have primary responsibility for the provision of elementary and secondary education in the United States. Nevertheless, ED performs numerous functions, including promoting educational standards and accountability, gathering education data via programs such as the National Assessment of Education Progress, disseminating research on important education issues, and administering federal education programs and policies. ED is responsible for administering a large number of elementary and secondary education programs, many of which provide direct support to school districts with a high concentration of disadvantaged students and students with disabilities. One of the most important priorities for ED in elementary and secondary education is improving academic outcomes for all students, particularly disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, English language learners, Indians, Native Hawaiians, and Alaska Natives. With regard to higher education, the federal government supports roughly 69% of all direct aid provided to students to finance their postsecondary education.⁴⁴ There are many higher education programs administered by ED—the largest are those providing financial aid to facilitate college access, primarily through student loans and the Pell grant program. In addition, ED administers programs that address vocational rehabilitation, career and technical education, and adult education.

FY2015 ED Appropriations Overview

The FY2015 omnibus provided roughly $70.47 billion in combined mandatory and discretionary funding for ED. This is about $105 million (+0.1%) more than the comparable FY2014 funding level and $1.45 billion (-2.0%) less than the FY2015 request. (See Table 8.) Of the total provided for ED in the FY2015 omnibus, roughly $67.14 billion (95%) is discretionary. This is $166 million (-0.2%) less than the comparable FY2014 discretionary funding level and $1.45 billion (-2.1%) less than the discretionary amount requested in the FY2015 President's budget.

Selected ED Highlights

The following are some ED highlights from the FY2015 omnibus compared to comparable FY2014 funding levels and proposed funding levels from the FY2015 President's budget.⁴⁵

Education for the Disadvantaged

The FY2015 omnibus provided $14.41 billion for Grants to Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) under Title I-A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). This is $25 million (+0.2%) more than comparable FY2014 funding and the FY2015 President's request for these grants. Title I-A is the largest K-12 education program administered by ED and most LEAs in the nation receive funding under this program. The omnibus maintained a provision from the FY2014 omnibus clarifying that these funds may be used to provide transportation for homeless students and to support the work of homeless liaisons.

The FY2015 omnibus maintained funding for School Improvement Grants at $506 million, the same amount the program received in FY2014 and in the FY2015 President's request. The omnibus included new provisions to increase LEA flexibility in implementing alternative school improvement strategies.

Impact Aid

The FY2015 omnibus provided $1.29 billion for Impact Aid. This is the same amount provided in FY2014, but roughly $67 million (+5.5%) more than the FY2015 President's request. The majority of Impact Aid funds are provided directly to LEAs to compensate them for the financial burden resulting from federal activities, including federal ownership of certain lands and the enrollment in LEAs of children of parents who live or work on federal lands.

Innovation and Improvement

The FY2015 omnibus provided $1.10 billion for the Innovation and Improvement account. This is $171 million (+18.3%) more than the comparable FY2014 funding level, but $432 million (-28.2%) less than the FY2015 President's request. Within this account, the Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE) received the largest increase (+$256 million) compared to FY2014. The majority of this increase ($250 million) was directed toward Preschool Development Grants. (Notably, the FY2014 omnibus also provided $250 million for Preschool Development Grants. However, the FY2014 funds were provided under Race to the Top rather than FIE.) The FY2015 omnibus directed ED to partner with HHS in awarding preschool grants to states for developing or expanding high-quality preschool programs for children in families with income at or below 200% of poverty.

Special Education

The FY2015 omnibus provided $11.50 billion for the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), Part B State Grants program. This is $25 million (+0.2%) more than the comparable FY2014 funding level and $75 million (-0.6%) less than the FY2015 President's request. IDEA Part B State Grants provide federal funding for elementary and secondary education for children with disabilities. As a condition for the receipt of these funds, states are required to provide a free and appropriate public education (i.e., specially designed instruction that meets the needs of a child with a disability).

Pell Grants

The FY2015 omnibus provided $22.48 billion for the Pell Grants program.⁴⁶ This amount is $303 million (-1.3%) less than comparable FY2014 funding and the FY2015 President's request. Under the FY2015 omnibus, the discretionary base maximum award for award year⁴⁷ (AY) 2015-2016 remained at $4,860, and the total maximum award for which a student is eligible in AY2015-2016 is projected to be $5,850.

Related Agencies

Note that figures in this section are based on regular L-HHS-ED appropriations only; they do not include funds provided outside the annual appropriations process (e.g., direct appropriations for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance benefit payments by the Social Security Administration). All amounts in this section are rounded to the nearest million or billion (as labeled). The dollar changes and percentage changes in the text are based on unrounded amounts.

FY2015 Related Agencies Appropriations Overview

The FY2015 omnibus provided roughly $70.05 billion in combined mandatory and discretionary funding for related agencies funded through this bill. This is about $61 million (-0.1%) less than the comparable FY2014 funding level and $191 million (-0.3%) less than the FY2015 President's request. (See Table 10.) Of the total provided for related agencies in the FY2015 omnibus, roughly $14.18 billion (20%) is discretionary. This is $114 million (+0.8%) more than the comparable FY2014 discretionary funding level and $221 million (-1.5%) less than the discretionary amount requested in the FY2015 President's budget.

In general, the largest share of funding appropriated to related agencies in the L-HHS-ED bill goes to the Social Security Administration (SSA).⁴⁸ When taking into account both mandatory and discretionary funding, the SSA accounted for 97% of the entire related agencies appropriation in FY2015. The bulk of mandatory SSA funding from the L-HHS-ED bill supports the Supplemental Security Income program, which provides means tested benefits to disabled children and adults and to persons 65 and older. When looking exclusively at discretionary funding, the SSA remains the largest component of the related agencies appropriation, constituting roughly 84% of discretionary funds in FY2015. The majority of discretionary SSA funding covers administrative expenses for Social Security, SSI, and Medicare.⁴⁹

After the SSA, the next-largest agency of the related agencies appropriation is the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which constitutes roughly 2% of all funding and 7% of discretionary funding in FY2015. Typically, each of the remaining related agencies receives less than $1 billion from the annual L-HHS-ED appropriations bill. For more information, see Table 11.

Selected Related Agencies Highlights

The FY2015 President's request for the SSA Limitation on Administrative Expenses (LAE) account, which provides the administrative funding for all the SSA programs and operations except the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), was $12 billion. Of this amount, $1.4 billion was requested for program integrity activities including continuing disability reviews (CDRs) and SSI redeterminations of eligibility, with $273 million set aside from the base LAE funding and $1.3 billion in additional funding above the discretionary funding caps set by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA; P.L. 112-25). The final appropriation for the SSA LAE account was $11.8 billion, which includes the full requested amount of $1.4 billion for program integrity.

Appendix. Budget Enforcement Activities

The framework for budget enforcement under the congressional budget process has both statutory and procedural elements.⁵⁰ The statutory elements include the discretionary spending limits and mandatory spending sequester derived from the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA; P.L. 112-25). The procedural elements are primarily associated with the budget resolution and limit both total discretionary spending and spending under the jurisdiction of each appropriations subcommittee.

Budget Control Act and Sequestration

The BCA, as amended, requires annual reductions to mandatory and discretionary spending over an extended period. For mandatory spending, reductions are to occur through sequestration in each of FY2013-FY2024.⁵¹ For discretionary spending, reductions occurred through sequestration in FY2013, but are to be achieved through lower discretionary spending limits for each of FY2014-FY2021. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 (BBA, Division A of P.L. 113-67) established new limits for FY2014 and FY2015 defense and nondefense discretionary spending, with no further reductions to those limits required. The BCA does not call for sequestration of discretionary spending in FY2014-FY2021 unless one or both of the statutory discretionary spending limits (defense and nondefense) is breached. The L-HHS-ED bill only includes funding in the nondefense category.

FY2015

On March 10, 2014, concurrent with the release of the FY2015 President's budget, President Obama issued the required sequestration order for nonexempt FY2015 mandatory spending.⁵² The sequester order took effect on October 1, 2014. OMB's FY2015 joint committee reductions report stated that the sequestration percentages were equal to 2% of nonexempt Medicare spending and 7.3% of other nonexempt nondefense mandatory spending in FY2015.⁵³ OMB estimated that this would reduce nonexempt nondefense mandatory spending by over $17 billion in FY2015. (The report also estimated a 9.5% reduction, totaling roughly $702 million, in nonexempt defense mandatory spending, but this is not applicable to L-HHS-ED funds.) The OMB report's appendix displays the actual dollar amounts to be sequestered from each budget account. While the report displays reductions at the account level, the sequester itself is implemented at the program, project, or activity level.

Sequestration of discretionary spending was not required in FY2015. According to OMB's analysis, after making allowable adjustments, the FY2015 omnibus did not violate the defense and nondefense spending limits.⁵⁴

Cap Adjustments, Exemptions, and Special Rules

The BCA, as amended, established discretionary spending limits (sometimes called budget caps) for FY2012-FY2021. The law includes provisions allowing for limited adjustments to the caps. For L-HHS-ED, the most notable of these is for increases (up to a point) in new budget authority for specified program integrity initiatives at HHS and the Social Security Administration.

In addition, although sequestration largely consists of automatic, across-the-board spending reductions, the law exempts a limited number of programs from sequestration and subjects others to special rules. The L-HHS-ED bill contains several programs that are exempt from sequestration, including Medicaid, payments to health care trust funds, Supplemental Security Income, Special Benefits for Disabled Coal Miners, retirement pay and medical benefits for commissioned Public Health Service officers, foster care and adoption assistance, and certain family support payments. The L-HHS-ED bill also contains several programs that are subject to special rules under sequestration, such as unemployment compensation, certain student loans, health centers, and portions of Medicare.⁵⁵

Budget Resolution and 302(b) Suballocations

The procedural elements of budget enforcement generally stem from requirements under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-44) that are associated with the adoption of an annual budget resolution. Through this process, the Appropriations Committee in each chamber receives a procedural limit on the total amount of discretionary budget authority for the upcoming fiscal year, referred to as a 302(a) allocation. The Appropriations Committee subsequently divides this allocation among its 12 subcommittees. These subcommittee-level spending limits are referred to as 302(b) suballocations. The 302(b) suballocations restrict the amount of budget authority available to each subcommittee for the agencies, projects, and activities under its jurisdiction, effectively acting as a cap on each of the 12 regular appropriations bills. Enforcement of the 302(a) allocation and 302(b) suballocations occurs through points of order.

Congress did not adopt a budget resolution for FY2015. Although the House agreed to a budget resolution (H.Con.Res. 96) on April 10, 2014, this measure was not taken up in the Senate, nor did the Senate consider a separate budget resolution for FY2015.

Instead, both the House and the Senate used an alternative mechanism for FY2015 procedural budget enforcement that was enacted as part of the BBA.⁵⁶ It allowed the Chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees to submit statements for publication in the Congressional Record that included FY2015 spending levels (i.e., 302(a) allocations) for the House and the Senate Appropriations Committees, provided these levels were "consistent with the discretionary spending limits" set forth in the BBA. The House statement was filed in the Congressional Record on April 29; the Senate statement was filed on May 5.⁵⁷ Once filed, these levels became enforceable on the House and the Senate floors.

Based on the budget enforcement provided via this alternative mechanism, the House and the Senate Appropriations Committees each reported initial 302(b) suballocations to their subcommittees prior to floor consideration of the FY2015 regular appropriations bills. However, it is common for these suballocations to be revised throughout the year to reflect actual action on appropriations bills and changes in congressional priorities; such changes are not always reported. The House most recently reported revised suballocations for FY2015 on June 17, 2014. The Senate most recently reported revised suballocations on December 12, 2014.

See Table A-1 for an overview of the published L-HHS-ED 302(b) suballocations for FY2015, as compared to the proposed FY2015 Senate subcommittee-approved bill and the enacted FY2015 omnibus. Note that compliance with discretionary spending allocations is evaluated based on budget authority available in the current fiscal year, adjusted for scorekeeping by the Congressional Budget Office. As such, totals shown in this table may not be comparable to other totals shown in this report.

Current-Year Budget Authority

Table A-2 displays the total L-HHS-ED current-year budget authority for FY2015 discretionary and mandatory appropriations provided or proposed, by title, compared to comparable FY2014 funding levels. The amounts shown in this table reflect total budget authority available for obligation in the fiscal year, regardless of the year in which it was first appropriated.⁵⁸ (For a comparable table showing total budget authority in the bill, rather than current-year budget authority, see Table 2 in the body of this report.) As mentioned above, it is current-year budget authority (adjusted for scorekeeping by the Congressional Budget Office) that is used to determine compliance with discretionary spending allocations.