Earlier today, the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education Appropriations Subcommittee approved their FY 2013 appropriations measure by a vote of 10-7. That bill would provide $158.8 billion in discretionary spending for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, as well as related agencies. This is about $2 billion more than the FY 2012 level and roughly equal to the President’s budget request. The bill includes a discretionary program level of $12.342 billion for the Department of Labor (FY 2012 level $12.553 billion), $71.0 billion for the Department of HHS (FY 2012 level $69.62 billion), $68.52 billion for the Department of Education (FY 2012 level $68.112 billion) and $14.15 billion for related agencies (FY 2012 level $13.832 billion).
The full Senate Appropriations Committee plans to markup the bill on Thursday. At this time, we hope to also see the report accompanying the bill, which will provide more detailed information on how funds are to be spent within each of the programs. Stay tuned for more information.
You can read a summary of the bill on the Senate Appropriations Committee web page.