Today, Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT) released the Committees FY 23 appropriations bills. The $1.67 trillion Appropriations package includes $653 billion in non-defense discretionary spending, a 10.1 percent increase over fiscal year 2022, $850 billion in defense discretionary spending, an 8.7 percent increase over fiscal year 2022, and $118.7 billion for VA medical care, a 22 percent increase over fiscal year 2022.

The Labor-HHS bill includes $119.7 billion in discretionary funding for HHS, an increase of $11.6 billion over FY 22 enacted levels and $3.6 billion less than President Joe Biden's request for the department.

The Labor-HHS bill includes $676.8 million ($158.1 million increase, or 30% increase over FY 22 enacted levels) for HRSA Title VII health professions programs, and $318.5 million ($38 million increase, or 14% increase over FY 22 enacted levels) for the HRSA Title VIII nursing workforce programs, for a total of $995.3 million for these programs. The explanatory statement also included $30 million for the new Preventing Burnout in the Health Workforce program, $5 million over the proposed funding level in the House Labor-HHS bill.

The bills will be used as the Senate’s mark in negotiations with the House, likely after the midterm elections if a topline spending agreement can be reached with Republicans.

A press release may be accessed here, a summary of the 12 bills is here, and the Labor-HHS bill details are here: bill text, explanatory statement, summary. A funding chart for the HRSA title VII and title VIII health workforce programs is available here.