Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2014 Appropriations
Released: 2014-10-15T00:00:00

Summary:
This report provides an overview of actions taken by Congress to provide FY2014 appropriations for accounts funded by the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies (L-HHS-ED) appropriations bill. The L-HHS-ED 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 funding for more than a dozen related agencies, including the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Enacted Appropriations: On January 17, 2014, President Obama signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-76), which provided appropriations for FY2014 (see Division H for L-HHS-ED). This law provided $164 billion in discretionary funding for L-HHS-ED, which is about 4% more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level ($157 billion) and about 3% less than the FY2014 President's Budget request ($171 billion). In addition, the FY2014 omnibus provided an estimated $612 billion in mandatory L-HHS-ED funding, for a total of $776 billion for L-HHS-ED as a whole. The FY2014 omnibus followed two government-wide continuing resolutions (CRs), which had provided temporary funding earlier in the fiscal year (P.L. 113-46 and P.L. 113-73). However, no government-wide CR was in place at the beginning of the fiscal year (October 1), resulting in a funding gap and government shutdown for affected projects and activities until the first government-wide CR for FY2014 was enacted on October 17, 2013 (P.L. 113-46).
Earlier L-HHS-ED Congressional Action: Prior to the start of the fiscal year, the Senate Appropriations Committee initiated action on a full-year FY2014 L-HHS-ED bill. On July 11, 2013, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported this bill (S. 1284, S.Rept. 113-71). As reported, S. 1284 would have provided $171 billion in discretionary L-HHS-ED funding. This amount is about 9% more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level and about 1% more than the FY2014 President's request. In addition, the Senate committee bill would have provided an estimated $613 billion in mandatory funding, for a combined total of nearly $783 billion for L-HHS-ED as a whole. The House did not take action on a stand-alone L-HHS-ED bill for FY2014.
President's Request: On April 10, 2013, the Obama Administration released its FY2014 Budget. The President requested $170 billion in discretionary funding for accounts funded by the L-HHS-ED bill (+8% from FY2013 post-sequester levels). In addition, the President's Budget requested roughly $612 billion in annually appropriated mandatory funding, for a total of roughly $782 billion (+4% from FY2013 post-sequester levels) for the L-HHS-ED bill as a whole.
DOL Snapshot: The FY2014 omnibus provided roughly $12.04 billion in discretionary funding for DOL. This is about 2% more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level of $11.85 billion and 4% less than the FY2014 request of $12.50 billion.
HHS Snapshot: The FY2014 omnibus provided roughly $70.44 billion in discretionary funding for HHS. This is about 6% more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level of $66.41 billion and 3% less than the FY2014 request of $72.50 billion.
ED Snapshot: The FY2014 omnibus provided roughly $67.30 billion in discretionary funding for ED. This is about 2% more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level of $65.70 billion and 5% less than the FY2014 request of $71.21 billion.
Related Agencies Snapshot: The FY2014 omnibus provided roughly $14.06 billion in discretionary funding for L-HHS-ED related agencies. This is 5% more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level of $13.34 billion and 4% more than the FY2014 request of $13.47 billion.

subsections: section_title: Introduction
paragraphs: This report provides a status update on FY2014 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 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.
section_title: Report Roadmap and Useful Terminology
paragraphs: This report is divided into several sections. The current 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 FY2014 appropriations and (for context) a review of the conclusion of the FY2013 appropriations process.
The following section provides a high level summary and analysis of proposed and enacted mandatory and discretionary appropriations for FY2014, compared to FY2013 pre- and post-sequester 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 FY2014 omnibus, compared to proposed appropriations in the Senate committee-reported bill ( S. 1284 ), the FY2014 President's request, and final FY2013 (pre- and post-sequester). 
Finally, an Appendix to the report provides a summary of budget enforcement activities. This includes a brief description of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA), a discussion of sequestration in FY2013 and FY2014, and an overview of other budget enforcement issues, including congressional work on an FY2014 budget resolution and 302(b) allocations (i.e., budget enforcement caps).
subsections: section_title: Scope of the Report
paragraphs: This report is focused strictly on appropriations to agencies and accounts that are subject to the jurisdiction of the Labor, HHS, 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).
section_title: Important Budget Concepts
subsections: section_title: Mandatory vs. Discretionary Appropriations1
paragraphs: 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 all 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 establishes 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.
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 in this report reflect only those funds, discretionary and mandatory, that are provided through appropriations bills.
Note that, as displayed in this report, mandatory amounts for the FY2014 President's request reflect current law (or current services) estimates as reported in S.Rept. 113-71 ; 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.)
section_title: Total Budget Authority Provided in the Bill vs. Total Budget Authority Available in the Fiscal Year
paragraphs: 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. 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).
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.
section_title: Status of FY2014 Appropriations
paragraphs:  Table 1 provides a timeline of major legislative action toward full-year FY2014 L-HHS-ED appropriations for FY2014. The remainder of this section provides additional detail on these and other steps toward full-year L-HHS-ED appropriations. 
subsections: section_title: FY2014 Omnibus Appropriations
paragraphs: 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, which is about 4% more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level ($157 billion) and about 3% less than the FY2014 President's Budget request ($171 billion). In addition, the FY2014 omnibus provided an estimated $612 billion in mandatory L-HHS-ED funding, for a total of $776 billion for L-HHS-ED as a whole. (See Figure 1 for the breakdown of discretionary and mandatory L-HHS-ED appropriations in P.L. 113-76 .) 
The FY2014 omnibus followed two government-wide continuing resolutions (CRs), which had provided temporary funding earlier in the fiscal year ( P.L. 113-46 and P.L. 113-73 ). However, no government-wide CR was in place at the beginning of the fiscal year (October 1), resulting in a funding gap and government shutdown for affected projects and activities until the first government-wide CR for FY2014 was enacted (more on this below).
section_title: FY2014 Funding Gap and Continuing Resolutions
paragraphs: FY2014 appropriations were not enacted prior to the start of the fiscal year on October 1, 2013. This resulted in a funding gap and government shutdown that lasted until a short-term CR was enacted on October 17, 2013 ( P.L. 113-46 ). That CR provided government-wide funding through January 15, 2014. With limited exceptions, the CR generally funded discretionary programs (including those in the L-HHS-ED bill) at their FY2013 levels, post-rescission and post-sequestration. A second FY2014 CR was enacted on January 15 ( P.L. 113-73 ). This CR maintained temporary, government-wide funding until the omnibus bill was signed by the President on January 17 ( P.L. 113-76 ).
Between October 2 and October 15, prior to the resolution of the FY2014 funding gap, action on appropriations was generally limited to a number of narrow CRs to provide funding for certain programs or classes of individuals, including several components of the L-HHS-ED bill (e.g., H.J.Res. 73 would have provided funding for the National Institutes of Health, H.J.Res. 83 would have provided funding for Impact Aid, and H.J.Res. 84 would have provided funding for Head Start). However, none of the L-HHS-ED-related CRs were enacted into law. In the absence of appropriations, federal agencies generally implemented contingency plans for staffing and program operations during this 16-day funding gap.
section_title: Congressional Actions on a Stand-Alone L-HHS-ED Bill
subsections: section_title: FY2014 Action in the Senate
paragraphs: On July 11, 2013, the Senate Committee on Appropriations reported a bill that would have provided full-year FY2014 L-HHS-ED appropriations ( S. 1284 , S.Rept. 113-71 ). Prior to this, on July 9, 2013, the L-HHS-ED Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Appropriations had approved a draft bill for full committee consideration.
As reported by the full committee, S. 1284 would have provided $171 billion in discretionary funding for L-HHS-ED. This is about 9% more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level and about 1% more than the FY2014 President's request. In addition, the Senate committee bill would have provided an estimated $613 billion in mandatory funding, for a combined total of nearly $783 billion for L-HHS-ED as a whole. 
section_title: FY2014 Action in the House
paragraphs: The House did not take action on a stand-alone FY2014 L-HHS-ED appropriations bill.
section_title: FY2014 President's Budget Request
paragraphs: On April 10, 2013, the Obama Administration released the FY2014 President's Budget. The President requested $170 billion in discretionary funding for accounts funded by the L-HHS-ED bill (+8% from FY2013 post-sequester levels). In addition, the President's Budget requested roughly $612 billion in annually appropriated mandatory funding, for a total of roughly $782 billion (+4% from FY2013 post-sequester levels) for the L-HHS-ED bill as a whole.
section_title: Conclusion of the FY2013 Appropriations Process
paragraphs: On March 26, 2013, President Obama signed into law the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 ( P.L. 113-6 ). This law funded five of the 12 regular appropriations bills (including L-HHS-ED) via a full-year CR in Division F. With limited exceptions, the full-year CR generally funded discretionary L-HHS-ED programs at their FY2012 levels, minus an across-the-board rescission of 0.2% per Section 3004, as implemented by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This is a lower level of funding than had been provided by an earlier six-month CR for FY2013 ( P.L. 112-175 ), which generally funded discretionary L-HHS-ED programs at FY2012 rates, plus. 0.612%.
When taking into account the 0.2% across-the-board rescission required by Section 3004, as implemented by OMB, the final FY2013 CR provided roughly $164 billion in discretionary funding for accounts traditionally funded by the L-HHS-ED bill. In addition, the law provided an estimated $592 billion in mandatory funding for L-HHS-ED accounts, for a total of roughly $757 billion. These FY2013 estimates are based on data in the committee report ( S.Rept. 113-71 ) accompanying the FY2014 Senate committee bill ( S. 1284 ) and do not account for the FY2013 sequester ordered by President Obama on March 1, 2013. 
Where possible, this report breaks out FY2013 "operating levels" separately from the pre-sequester amounts provided by the full-year FY2013 CR. In this report, operating levels are generally based on agency operating or expenditure plans for FY2013 (or FY2013 levels displayed in FY2014 President's Budget materials). For agencies funded in this bill, operating plans typically take into account the amounts provided in the FY2013 full-year CR (including, as appropriate, the 0.2% across-the-board rescission), reductions required by the FY2013 sequester, and transfers or reprogramming of funds across or within budget accounts pursuant to executive authorities. For more information on the FY2013 sequester, see related discussion in the Appendix to this report.
Note that in addition to amounts provided by P.L. 113-6 , L-HHS-ED programs and activities received a total of $827 million in supplemental funding in FY2013 (pre-sequester). These funds were appropriated by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013 ( P.L. 113-2 ) in response to the effects of Hurricane Sandy. The bulk of the L-HHS-ED disaster funding was directed to HHS for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund, the Social Services Block Grant, and the Head Start program. FY2013 totals shown in this report do not include these supplemental funds. 
section_title: Summary of FY2014 L-HHS-ED Appropriations
paragraphs:  Table 2 displays the total amount of FY2014 discretionary and mandatory L-HHS-ED funding provided or proposed, by title, compared to comparable pre- and post-sequester FY2013 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 to this report.)
When taking into account both mandatory and discretionary funding, HHS received roughly 80% of total L-HHS-ED appropriations in FY2013 and FY2014 (see Figure 2 for the bill composition in FY2014). 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, the Department of Education and Related Agencies represent the next-largest shares of total L-HHS-ED funding, accounting for about 9% apiece in FY2013 and the FY2014 omnibus. The majority of 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, the Department of Labor accounts for the smallest share of total L-HHS-ED funds: 2% in FY2013 and the FY2014 omnibus.
When looking only at discretionary appropriations, however, the overall composition of L-HHS-ED funding is noticeably different (see Figure 2 ). HHS accounts for a smaller share of discretionary appropriations (43% in FY2013 and the FY2014 omnibus), while ED accounts for a larger share (41% in FY2013 and the FY2014 omnibus). Together, these two departments represent the majority (84%) of discretionary L-HHS-ED appropriations in FY2013 and FY2014. Meanwhile, the Department of Labor and Related Agencies combine to account for a roughly even split of the remaining 16% of discretionary L-HHS-ED funds in FY2013 and FY2014.
section_title: Department of Labor (DOL)
paragraphs: 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 percent changes discussed in the text are based on unrounded amounts.
subsections: section_title: About DOL
paragraphs: 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). 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 Investment Act (WIA) 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). 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 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, the DOL's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects data and provides analysis on the labor market and related labor issues.
section_title: FY2014 DOL Appropriations Overview
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus provided roughly $14.18 billion in combined mandatory and discretionary funding for DOL. This is about $703 million (+5.2%) more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level and $457 million (-3.1%) less than the FY2014 request. (See Table 3 .) Of the total provided for DOL in the FY2014 omnibus, roughly $12.04 billion (85%) is discretionary. This amount is $195 million (+1.6%) more than the post-sequester FY2013 discretionary funding level and $457 million (-3.7%) less than the discretionary total requested in the FY2014 President's Budget.
section_title: Selected DOL Highlights from FY2014 Appropriations Action
paragraphs: The following are some DOL highlights from the FY2014 omnibus compared to comparable FY2013 funding levels and proposed funding levels from the FY2014 President's Budget.
subsections: section_title: Employment and Training Administration (ETA)
paragraphs: Overall, the law provided $4.8 billion for programs authorized under Title I of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which is $202 million more than the post-sequester FY2013 funding level and $115 million less than the Administration's FY2014 request. The FY2014 omnibus also changed a provision started in the FY2011 appropriations law, which limits the Governors' reserve of WIA state formula grants to 5% of the total received from the three state formula grants—Adult, Youth, and Dislocated Workers. The statutory limit is 15%, but the FY2011 appropriations law reduced this to 5% and the FY2012 and FY2013 appropriations laws maintained the 5% limitation. The FY2014 omnibus increased this reserve to 8.75% of the WIA state formula grant funds.
The law also altered the manner in which program evaluation is funded. Rather than providing a specific appropriation of funds for the purpose of evaluation, the bill allowed the Secretary of Labor to reserve up to 0.5% of each appropriation made available in certain accounts for the purpose of program evaluation.
Finally, the law provided the Community Service Employment for Older Americans (CSEOA) Program with $434 million. The law maintained DOL administration of CSEOA, rejecting a proposal from the FY2014 President's Budget to transfer administration of the program to HHS.
section_title: Veterans Employment and Training (VETS)
paragraphs: The law specified funding levels for particular activities within the Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS), as opposed to past practice of not specifying amounts for individual activities. In addition, the enacted bill provided authority to the Secretary to reallocate funds within VETS, not to exceed 3% of the appropriation from which the reallocation is made.
section_title: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
paragraphs: The joint explanatory statement accompanying the law indicated that the law provides funding necessary to ensure that data collection under the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience (NLS) occurs not less than biennially. In addition, the joint explanatory statement encouraged BLS to add an annual supplement to the Current Population Survey to include contingent work and alternative work arrangements.
section_title: Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
paragraphs: 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]). All amounts in this section are rounded to the nearest million or billion (as labeled). The dollar changes and percent changes discussed in the text are based on unrounded amounts. 
subsections: section_title: About HHS
paragraphs: 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 for all agencies supported by the L-HHS-ED bill). For instance, the L-HHS-ED bill directs funding to five Public Health Service (PHS) agencies: HRSA, CDC, NIH, SAMHSA, and AHRQ. 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 disease (e.g., CDC). In addition, the L-HHS-ED bill provides funding for annually appropriated components of CMS, 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: ACF and ACL. The mission of ACF is to promote the economic and social well-being of vulnerable children, youth, families, and communities. Meanwhile, 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. Finally, the L-HHS-ED bill also provides funding for the HHS Office of the Secretary, which encompasses a broad array of management, research, oversight, and emergency preparedness functions in support of the entire department. 
section_title: FY2014 HHS Appropriations Overview
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus provided roughly $621 billion in combined mandatory and discretionary funding for HHS. This is about $22 million (+3.6%) more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level and $2 million (-0.3%) less than the FY2014 request. (See Table 5 .) Of the total provided for HHS in the FY2014 omnibus, roughly $70 billion (11%) is discretionary. This is $4 million (+6.1%) more than the post-sequester FY2013 discretionary funding level and $2 million (-2.9%) less than the discretionary amount requested in the FY2014 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 87% of all HHS appropriations in FY2013 and FY2014. NIH and ACF account for the next largest shares of total HHS appropriations, receiving 5% apiece of total HHS appropriations in FY2013 and FY2014. 
By contrast, when looking exclusively at discretionary appropriations, CMS constituted only 6% of discretionary HHS appropriations in FY2013 and FY2014. Instead, the bulk of discretionary appropriations go toward the PHS agencies, which combined to account for over 60% of discretionary HHS appropriations in FY2013 and FY2014. NIH typically receives the largest share of all discretionary funding among HHS agencies (over 40% in FY2013 and FY2014), with ACF accounting for the second-largest share of all discretionary appropriations (24% in FY2013 and 25% in FY2014). 
See Figure 3 for an agency-level breakdown of HHS appropriations (combined mandatory and discretionary) in the FY2014 omnibus.
section_title: Selected HHS Highlights from FY2014 Appropriations Actions
paragraphs: 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 FY2014 discretionary funding highlights across HHS. Finally, 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.
subsections: section_title: Public Health Service Evaluation Tap
paragraphs: 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 PHS 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 PHS 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 tap provides more than a dozen HHS programs with funding beyond their regular appropriations and, in some cases, the tap may be the sole source of funding for a program or activity. The FY2014 omnibus maintained the set-aside level at 2.5% of eligible appropriations, the same percentage as FY2013. The omnibus rejected the FY2014 President's Budget proposal to increase the set-aside to 3.0%. 
section_title: Prevention and Public Health Fund21
paragraphs: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) authorized and directly appropriated funding for three multi-billion dollar trust funds to support programs and activities within the PHS agencies. 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. For FY2014, the ACA directly appropriated $1.5 billion in mandatory funds to the PPHF. However, Congress subsequently passed the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, which reduced ACA's annual appropriations to the PPHF over the period FY2013-FY2021 by a total of $6.25 billion. This reduced the FY2014 PPHF appropriation to $1 billion. 
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 programs newly authorized in ACA. Congress may direct the Secretary to allocate PPHF funds to specific accounts. Otherwise, PPHF funds become available to the Secretary on October 1 of each year, for allocation as the Secretary decides. The FY2014 President's Budget included the Administration's proposed distribution of PPHF funds. The Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying the FY2014 omnibus recommended PPHF allocations that would, similar to prior years, distribute most of the funds to CDC, including $160 million for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and $446 million for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. 
section_title: HHS Highlights by Agency
paragraphs: The discussion below reviews a limited selection of FY2014 discretionary funding highlights for programs supported by the HHS agencies funded in this bill. The discussion is largely based on the FY2014 omnibus, compared to FY2013 post-sequester funding levels and proposed funding levels from the FY2014 President's Budget.
section_title: HRSA
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus provided $6.1 billion in discretionary funding for HRSA. This amount is $200 million (+3.4%) more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level and $39 million (+0.7%) more than the FY2014 President's request. The increases provided in the omnibus generally affected most HRSA programs, with Health Professions (Title VII) programs receiving the largest proportional increase (12% more than post-sequester FY2013 levels). 
The omnibus enacted the FY2014 President's Budget proposal to transfer administration of the Health Education Assistance Loan (HEAL) program from HRSA to the Department of Education. However, the omnibus rejected several President's Budget proposals to eliminate discretionary appropriations for three programs—Heritable Disorders, Poison Control Centers, and Universal Newborn Hearing Screening—and to fund these programs exclusively with PPHF transfers at or near FY2013 pre-sequester levels. Instead, the omnibus provided discretionary funding for these programs at or slightly above FY2013 post-sequester levels. The omnibus did not fund the Pediatric Loan Repayment program, which was authorized in the ACA but has not yet been funded; both the President's Budget and Senate committee-reported bill proposed funding this program at $5 million. Consistent with recent practice, the FY2014 omnibus provided no funding for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC). The NHSC has not received discretionary appropriations in the Labor-HHS-ED bill since FY2011. Instead, the NHSC has been supported with funds that were authorized and directly appropriated by the ACA.
section_title: CDC
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus provided $5.8 billion in discretionary funding for CDC. This amount is $370 million (+6.8%) more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level and $591 million (+11.3%) more than the FY2014 President's request. The omnibus increased discretionary budget authority for many programs including Environmental Health (+43.7% from post-sequester levels); Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (+16.4% from post-sequester levels); Global Health (+16.2% from post-sequester levels); and Injury Prevention and Control (+9.0% from post-sequester levels). The omnibus called for an increase in PPHF transfers to Chronic Disease and Health Promotion programs (+91% from FY2013) sufficient to more than make up for the decrease in discretionary appropriations (-3.8% from post-sequester levels). 
In FY2014, a share of the funds appropriated for CDC-wide activities (roughly $380 million) will support business services and implementation of the CDC Working Capital Fund (WCF). The WCF was first established in the FY2012 appropriations law ( P.L. 112-74 ) as a revolving fund for consolidated business services. Readers should be aware that amounts requested for CDC programs in the FY2014 President's Budget (as shown in Table 7 ) are not comparable to amounts shown in other columns due to differing display conventions related to WCF funding. The President's request embedded WCF funds within the line items for the various CDC programs and activities being supported by the WCF, while all other columns consolidate total WCF funding into the larger CDC-wide activities line item. 
section_title: NIH
paragraphs: The omnibus provided $29.9 billion in discretionary budget authority for NIH. This is $1 billion (+3.5%) more than FY2013 post-sequester operating levels and $1.2 billion (-3.8%) less than the President's request. The omnibus provided most of the NIH Institutes and Centers with an increase of 3% compared to their FY2013 post-sequester operating levels. However, the omnibus provided larger increases (relative to FY2013 post-sequester levels) for selected Institutes and Centers, including the National Institute on Aging (+13%) to boost Alzheimer's disease research funding, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (+17%), allowing up to $9.8 million for the Cures Acceleration Network. 
section_title: SAMHSA
paragraphs: The omnibus provided $3.4 billion in discretionary funding for SAMHSA. This is $3 million (+2%) more than FY2013 post-sequester operating levels and $32 million (-19%) less than the President's request. The Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying the omnibus directed $374 million (+38% from FY2013 post-sequester levels) to SAMHSA's Mental Health Programs of Regional and National Significance (PRNS) and $463 million (+11% from FY2013 post-sequester levels) to the Mental Health Block Grant (MHBG). According to the Joint Explanatory Statement, the MHBG is to be augmented with an additional $21 million from the PHS Evaluation Tap. Further, the omnibus called for a new 5% set-aside within the MHBG for evidence-based programs addressing the needs of individuals with early serious mental illness, including psychotic disorders. The omnibus also authorized SAMHSA to collect user fees for certain costs of publications, data, and data analysis. Previously, SAMHSA had no such authority.
section_title: AHRQ
paragraphs: AHRQ receives no discretionary budget authority in L-HHS-ED appropriations bills; rather, funding for almost all of its programs is provided by transfers from the PHS Evaluation Tap. An additional amount for one prevention program is transferred from the PPHF. The FY2014 omnibus provided $364 million in Evaluation Tap transfers. This is $1.4 million (-0.4%) less than the FY2013 post-sequester operating level and $30 million (+9.1%) more than the President's request. The omnibus provided increased support for patient safety research and research innovations, areas for which reductions had been proposed in the President's Budget.
section_title: CMS
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus provided nearly $4.0 billion in discretionary funding for CMS. This is $114 million (-2.8%) less than the FY2013 post-sequester discretionary operating level for CMS and nearly $1.6 billion (-28.3%) less than the President's request. The Program Management account received by far the largest share of discretionary CMS appropriations, $3.7 billion (-13% from FY2013 post-sequester levels). These funds support program operations (e.g., claims processing, information technology investments, provider and beneficiary outreach and education, appeals, and program implementation), as well as federal administration and other activities. The omnibus also appropriated $294 million for Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) activities. This is roughly equivalent to HCFAC's FY2013 post-sequester funding level, though is well below the Senate committee-report recommendation of $611 million. The Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying the FY2014 omnibus also called for GAO to review the feasibility, cost, benefits, and barriers for CMS to implement a Medicare transactional system with "smart card" technology for validation and authentication of beneficiaries and providers. 
section_title: ACF
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus provided $17.7 billion in discretionary funding for ACF. This is nearly $2 billion (+12%) more than ACF's FY2013 post-sequester funding level and $91 million (-0.5%) less than the President's request. The omnibus provided $1.5 billion for Refugee and Entrant Assistance programs (+48% from FY2013 post-sequester levels). The Joint Explanatory Statement expressed an expectation that the majority of these funds ($868 million; +131% from FY2013 post-sequester) would 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 UAC reflects the growing number of unaccompanied alien children arriving in this country, up from about 16,100 in FY2011 to roughly 38,800 in FY2013, according to the U.S Border Patrol. 
The omnibus demonstrated support for ACF early childhood care and education programs, such as Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). For instance, the omnibus provided $8.6 billion for Head Start (+14% from FY2013 post-sequester). This amount allows for a cost-of-living adjustment of 1.3% for existing Head Start programs and provides $25 million for certain costs related to the Head Start Designation Renewal System, through which low-performing grantees are identified for re-competition. It also includes $500 million for a new initiative to develop Early Head Start-Child Care. Separately, the bill appropriated almost $2.4 billion for the CCDBG (+7% from FY2013 post-sequester). 
section_title: ACL
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus provided $1.7 billion in discretionary funding for ACL. This is nearly $109 million (+7%) more than ALF's FY2013 post-sequester funding level and $432 million (-21%) less than the President's request. Readers should note that ACL was first established as an HHS agency in April 2012 and the first time funding was requested for ACL as an individual agency was in the FY2014 President's Budget. Previous President's Budgets included separate requests for the Administration on Aging, which is now a subcomponent of the larger ACL, along with several other offices. 
The omnibus rejected the FY2014 President's Budget proposal to transfer the Community Service Employment for Older Americans program from the Department of Labor to HHS/ACL, but accepted the Administration's proposal to transfer the State Health Insurance Programs (SHIPs) from CMS to ACL ($52 million in FY2014) and the Paralysis Resource Center from CDC to ACL ($6.7 million in FY2014). SHIPs provide one-on-one counseling and information assistance to Medicare beneficiaries and their families on Medicare and other health insurance issues. Many SHIPs are already housed in, or are partnered with, state aging services agencies. Meanwhile, the Paralysis Resource Center provides comprehensive information and referral services to people living with paralysis and their families.
section_title: Funding Restrictions Related to Certain Controversial Issues
paragraphs: 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/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. 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. The FY2014 omnibus maintained each of these provisions for FY2014. 
The FY2012 law reinstated a provision, removed in FY2010, prohibiting L-HHS-ED funds from being used for needle exchange programs. This provision was maintained under the terms of the FY2013 full-year CR and the FY2014 omnibus. The FY2012 law also expanded a provision prohibiting CDC spending on activities that advocate or promote gun control so that it applied to all HHS appropriations; it also added a new, broader provision prohibiting the use of any L-HHS-ED funds (plus funds transferred from the Prevention and Public Health Fund) for the promotion of gun control. These provisions were maintained under the terms of the FY2013 full-year CR and the FY2014 omnibus. 
section_title: Department of Education (ED)
paragraphs: 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 percent changes discussed in the text are based on unrounded amounts. 
subsections: section_title: About ED
paragraphs: The federal government provides support for both elementary and secondary education, and postsecondary education. With regard to elementary and secondary education, the federal government provides roughly 12% of overall funding; the vast majority of funding comes from states and local districts. States and school districts also have primary responsibility for the provision of elementary and secondary education in the United States. Nevertheless, the U.S. Department of Education (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 73% of all direct aid provided to students to finance their postsecondary education. There are also 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. 
section_title: FY2014 ED Appropriations Overview
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus provided roughly $70.60 billion in combined mandatory and discretionary funding for ED. This is about $1.83 billion (+2.7%) more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level and $3.91 billion (-5.2%) less than the FY2014 request. (See Table 8 .) Of the total provided for ED in the FY2014 omnibus, roughly $67.30 billion (95%) is discretionary. This is $236 million (+2.4%) more than the post-sequester FY2013 discretionary funding level and $3.91 billion (-5.5%) less than the discretionary amount requested in the FY2014 President's Budget. 
section_title: Selected ED Highlights from FY2013 Appropriations Actions
paragraphs: The following are some ED highlights from the FY2014 omnibus compared to comparable FY2013 funding levels and proposed funding levels from the FY2014 President's Budget. 
subsections: section_title: Education for the Disadvantaged
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus increased funding for Education for the Disadvantaged Grants to Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) to $14.38 billion. This is $625 million more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level and $132 million less than the President's Budget request. Education for the Disadvantaged is the largest K-12 education program administered by ED and nearly all LEAs in the nation receive funding under this program. The omnibus included a new provision clarifying that these funds may be used to provide transportation for homeless students and to support the work of homeless liaisons.
The FY2014 omnibus funded School Improvement Grants at $506 million; the same amount as the FY2013 post-sequester funding level and $153 million less than the President's Budget request. 
section_title: Impact Aid
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus provided $1.29 billion for Impact Aid, which is $65 million more than the program's FY2013 post-sequester funding level. 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.
section_title: Innovation and Improvement
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus provided $250 million for the Race to the Top (RTT) program. This is $270 million less than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level and $750 million less than the FY2014 President's Budget request. The President's Budget and the Senate committee-reported bill for FY2014 would have directed RTT funding toward a new College Affordability and Completion initiative to incentivize state-level postsecondary education reform. However, the FY2014 omnibus directed the entire $250 million toward Preschool Development Grants. These grants are intended to support states in developing or expanding high quality preschool for four-year-olds from families with incomes at or below 200% of poverty. Note that this new RTT Preschool Development Program is distinct from the RTT Early Learning Challenge, for which funding was provided in each of FY2011-FY2013 to support states in implementing integrated early learning systems and serving low-income children from birth through age five. 
section_title: Safe Schools and Citizenship Education
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus provided $57 million for the Promise Neighborhoods program, which awards competitive grants to distressed communities for comprehensive neighborhood programs designed to combat the effects of poverty and improve the educational and life outcomes of children from birth through college. The funding level provided by the FY2014 omnibus is equal to the FY2013 post-sequester funding level, but $243 million less than the FY2014 President's Budget request. 
section_title: Special Education
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus provides $11.47 billion in funding for Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), Part B State Grants program. This is $498 million more than the 2013 post-sequester funding level and $105 million less than the President's Budget request for FY2014. 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).
section_title: Student Financial Aid
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus provided $22.78 billion for the Pell Grants program. This amount is equal to the FY2013 post-sequester funding level, but is $46 million less than the FY2014 President's request. Under the FY2014 omnibus, the discretionary base maximum award for award year (AY) 2014-15 remained at $4,860, and the total maximum award for which a student is eligible in AY2014-15 is projected to be $5,730. 
section_title: Related Agencies
paragraphs: 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 percent changes in the text are based on unrounded amounts.
subsections: section_title: FY2014 Related Agencies Appropriations Overview
paragraphs: The FY2014 omnibus provided roughly $70.11 billion in combined mandatory and discretionary funding for related agencies funded through this bill. This is about $2.29 billion (+ 3.4%) more than the FY2013 post-sequester funding level and about $584 million (+0.8%) more than the FY2014 request. (See Table 10 .) Of the total provided for related agencies in the FY2014 omnibus, roughly $14.06 billion (20%) is discretionary. This amount is $725 million (+ 5.4%) more than the post-sequester FY2013 discretionary funding level and $591 million (+ 4.4%) more than the discretionary total requested in the FY2014 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). When taking into account both mandatory and discretionary funding, the SSA accounted for 97% of the entire related agencies appropriation in FY2014. 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 person 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 FY2014. The majority of discretionary SSA funding covers administrative expenses for Social Security, SSI, and Medicare. 
After the SSA, the next-largest agency of the related agencies appropriation is the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which constituted roughly 2% of all funding and 8% of discretionary funding in FY2014. 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 .
section_title: Selected Related Agencies Highlights from FY2014 Appropriations Actions49
paragraphs: The most significant highlight from the FY2014 budget and appropriations actions among the L-HHS-ED related agencies was SSA's proposal to largely remove funding for program integrity activities from the Limitation on Administrative Expenses (LAE) account and create, through authorizing legislation, a new source of mandatory annual funding for program integrity activities in a new Program Integrity Administrative Expenses (PIAE) account. No legislation creating the PIAE account or the mandatory funding for program integrity has been introduced in either house of Congress and no such provision was part of P.L. 113-76 .
The SSA's total program integrity request for FY2014 was $1.5 billion, with $273 million requested as part of LAE and the remaining $1.2 billion requested via the proposed mandatory spending for the PIAE account. The FY2014 omnibus did not include the proposed PIAE or any mandatory program integrity spending, but did include $1.2 billion in program integrity funding as part of LAE, an increase of $441 million (+58%) over the pre-sequester program integrity funding provided for FY2013.
subsections: section_title: Appendix. Budget Enforcement Activities
paragraphs: Budget Control Act and Sequestration
Congress considered FY2014 appropriations in the context of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA, P.L. 112-25 ) which established initial discretionary spending limits for FY2012-FY2021. The BCA also tasked a Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction with developing a deficit reduction plan for Congress and the President to enact by January 15, 2012. The failure of Congress and the President to enact deficit reduction legislation by that date triggered an automatic spending reduction process consisting of a combination of sequestration and lower discretionary spending limits. 
FY2013 
For FY2013, the BCA called for sequestration of both mandatory and discretionary spending. President Obama issued the required FY2013 sequestration order on March 1, 2013. Concurrently, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a report containing the amounts by which budgetary resources must be reduced in order to achieve the necessary spending reductions in FY2013. In general, OMB estimated that the joint committee sequester would require a 5.0% reduction in non-exempt nondefense discretionary funding, a 2.0% reduction in certain Medicare funding (subject to a special rule), and a 5.1% reduction for most other non-exempt nondefense mandatory funding. (OMB also reported on the required percent reductions of non-exempt defense spending—7.8% for non-exempt defense discretionary and 7.9% for non-exempt defense mandatory—but these do not apply to L-HHS-ED.) OMB applied these percentages to funding levels in place at that time (a six-month CR, P.L. 112-175 ) to determine dollar amount reductions for each budget account. These reductions were later applied to full-year FY2013 funding levels following the enactment of full-year funding in P.L. 113-6 . 
FY2014 and Beyond
For FY2014-FY2021, the BCA requires annual reductions to both mandatory and discretionary spending. These reductions are to be achieved through a combination of (1) continued sequestration for non-exempt mandatory programs and (2) lower spending limits for discretionary programs. Subsequent laws ( P.L. 113-67 , P.L. 113-82 ) have amended the BCA to extend sequestration for non-exempt mandatory programs through FY2024. In addition, the discretionary spending limits for FY2014 and FY2015 have been modified by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA, P.L. 112-240 ) and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 (BBA, Division A of P.L. 113-67 ). The BCA does not call for sequestration of discretionary spending in FY2014 unless one or both of the statutory discretionary spending limits (also called budget caps) is breached. There are separate limits for defense (budget function 050) and nondefense spending, but the L-HHS-ED bill only includes funding in the nondefense category. 
On April 10, 2013, concurrent with the release of the FY2014 President's Budget, President Obama issued a sequestration order for non-exempt FY2014 mandatory spending. The sequester order took effect on October 1, 2013. OMB's FY2014 joint committee reductions report stated that the sequestration percentages were equal to 2% of nonexempt Medicare spending and 7.2% of non-exempt nondefense mandatory spending in FY2014. (The report also estimated reductions of 9.8% in non-exempt defense mandatory spending, but this is not applicable to the L-HHS-ED bill.) 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 FY2014. According to OMB's analysis, after making allowable adjustments, the FY2014 omnibus did not violate the defense and nondefense spending limits. 
Cap Adjustments, Exemptions, and Special Rules
The BCA (as amended by ATRA and the BBA) established discretionary spending 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.
FY2014 Budget Resolution and 302(b) Allocations
The BBA, which was enacted December 26, 2013, resulted from negotiations between the Chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees in association with the conference committee on the FY2014 budget resolution. The BBA includes a section titled, "Establishing a Congressional Budget" (Title I, Subtitle B), which provided an alternative mechanism for budget enforcement that could serve as a substitute for a traditional congressional budget resolution for FY2014 and potentially for FY2015. Following enactment of the BBA, the Chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees submitted statements for publication in the Congressional Record that included committee spending levels (302(a) allocations) for the House and Senate Appropriations Committees for FY2014 "consistent with the discretionary spending limits" set forth in the BBA. Once filed, these levels became enforceable on the House and Senate floor. According to analysis by CBO and OMB, the discretionary appropriations in the FY2014 omnibus, enacted on January 17, 2014, adhered to these spending caps.
Prior to congressional action on the BBA, both the House and Senate had taken action on their own budget resolutions. On March 23, 2013, the Senate agreed to an FY2014 budget resolution ( S.Con.Res. 8 ) by a vote of 50-49. On March 21, 2013, the House agreed to its own FY2014 budget resolution ( H.Con.Res. 25 ) by a vote of 221-207. On the basis of the overall spending levels established by H.Con.Res. 25 and S.Con.Res. 8 , the House and Senate took steps to adopt limits for each of the appropriations subcommittees. These subcommittee spending caps are commonly called 302(b) allocations. The House most recently reported revised 302(b) allocations for FY2014 on July 8, 2013. Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations Committee adopted subcommittee spending guidance for FY2014 at a markup on June 20, 2013. No new subcommittee allocations were released publicly following the enactment of the BBA and the submission of the new budgetary levels into the Congressional Record by the House and Senate Budget Committee Chairs.
See Table A-1 for an overview of the published L-HHS-ED 302(b) allocations for FY2014, as compared to the proposed FY2014 Senate committee bill and the enacted FY2014 omnibus. Note that the most recently published 302(b) allocations do not reflect the revisions to overall caps established by the BBA. Note also that compliance with the discretionary spending caps 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-1 displays the total L-HHS-ED current year budget authority for FY2014 discretionary and mandatory appropriations provided or proposed, by title, compared to comparable pre- and post-sequester FY2013 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. (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.)