This report provides an overview of the Obama Administration's FY2012 budget request and the status of FY2012 appropriations for accounts traditionally funded in the appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, 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 issues, such as restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion and for research on human embryos and stem cells. 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. This is followed by a section on the status of the FY2012 appropriations process for the L-HHS-ED bill as a whole. This section provides a broad overview of the major congressional actions on FY2012 L-HHS-ED appropriations, including House ( H.R. 3070 ) and Senate ( S. 1599 ) steps toward full-year funding which culminated in the enactment of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012 ( P.L. 112-74 ). For context, this section also briefly reviews the conclusion of the FY2011 appropriations process. The next section provides a brief summary and analysis of final mandatory and discretionary FY2012 appropriations, by bill title, compared to proposed funding for FY2012 and comparable funding for FY2011. This is followed by a section which provides an overview of discretionary L-HHS-ED funding over the past ten years, placing FY2012 appropriations in an historical context. The next section provides a summary of budget enforcement activities for FY2012. This includes a brief description of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (and how it relates to L-HHS-ED) and an overview of House and Senate steps toward a budget resolution and 302(b) allocations (i.e., budget enforcement caps). Finally, the report concludes with detailed 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. Note that the FY2012 enacted numbers cited throughout these sections, and the report as a whole, do not yet reflect the 0.189% across-the-board rescission required by Section 527 of Division F of P.L. 112-74 for most discretionary L-HHS-ED accounts. 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 and Survivors Insurance (i.e., Social Security retirement) and parts of Medicare, receive funding directly from their authorizing statute; 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). The L-HHS-ED bill includes both discretionary and mandatory funding. 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. Not all mandatory spending is provided through the annual appropriations process. Certain entitlements receive direct spending budget authority from their authorizing statute (e.g., Social Security retirement) and thus are not subject to the annual appropriations process. The funding amounts displayed in this report do not include direct spending budget authority provided outside the regular 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 FY2012 President's request reflect current law (or current services) estimates; they do not reflect 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.) 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. Table 1 provides a timeline of major legislative action toward full-year L-HHS-ED appropriations for FY2012. The remainder of this section provides additional detail on these and other steps toward full-year L-HHS-ED appropriations. On December 23, 2011, President Obama signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012 ( H.R. 2055 , H.Rept. 112-331 , P.L. 112-74 ), which had been passed by the House on December 16 and by the Senate on December 17. This appropriations "megabus" provides FY2012 appropriations for nine of the twelve regular appropriations bills, including L-HHS-ED. The law provides $163.9 billion in discretionary funding for accounts traditionally funded by the L-HHS-ED bill, which is nearly 1% less than the comparable FY2011 funding level. In addition, the law provides an estimated $576.7 billion in mandatory funding for L-HHS-ED accounts, for a total of $740.6 billion for the bill as a whole. (Note that these totals do not reflect the 0.189% across-the-board rescission required for most discretionary L-HHS-ED accounts.) Prior to December 23, L-HHS-ED funding for FY2012 had been provided by a series of short-term continuing resolutions ( P.L. 112-68 , P.L. 112-67 , P.L. 112-55 , P.L. 112-36 , and P.L. 112-33 ). Also on December 23, President Obama signed into law the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2012 ( H.R. 3672 , P.L. 112-77 ), which—along with the FY2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act—had been passed by the House on December 16 and by the Senate on December 17. The only L-HHS-ED funding in this law is $484 million for program integrity activities at the Social Security Administration. When combined with the annual appropriations provided by P.L. 112-74 , these supplemental funds for SSA bring the total FY2012 L-HHS-ED discretionary funding level up to $164.3 billion. Figure 1 displays the FY2012 breakdown of discretionary and mandatory funding provided for L-HHS-ED agencies by P.L. 112-74 and P.L. 112-77 . (For additional details on amounts provided by bill title, see Table 2 .) Before the enactment of P.L. 112-74 , both the House and Senate had initiated action on full-year FY2012 L-HHS-ED appropriations. On September 29, 2011, a bill was introduced in the House to provide year-long FY2012 L-HHS-ED appropriations ( H.R. 3070 ). The bill would have provided nearly $160 billion in discretionary funding, which is about 3% less than comparable FY2011 funding. The House bill would have also provided an estimated $577 billion in mandatory funding, for a total of $737 billion in the bill as a whole. This bill was not marked up by the L-HHS-ED Appropriations Subcommittee or by the full House Appropriations Committee. On September 22, 2011, the Senate Committee on Appropriations reported a bill that would have provided year-long FY2012 L-HHS-ED appropriations ( S. 1599 , S.Rept. 112-84 ). The Senate bill would have provided roughly $165 billion in discretionary funding, which is roughly the same as comparable FY2011 funding. The Senate bill would have also provided an estimated $577 billion in mandatory funding, for a total of $742 billion in the bill as a whole. On February 14, 2011, before the final FY2011 Continuing Resolution (CR) had been enacted, the Obama Administration released its FY2012 Budget. The President's Budget requested $178.5 billion in discretionary funding for accounts funded by the L-HHS-ED bill (+8% from comparable FY2011). In addition, the President's Budget requested roughly $577.1 billion in annually appropriated mandatory funding (based on the most recent current law estimates), for a total of $755.6 billion for the L-HHS-ED bill as a whole. In FY2011, annual L-HHS-ED appropriations were provided through a series of continuing resolutions. On April 15, 2011, President Obama signed into law the eighth—and final—CR for FY2011, the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 ( P.L. 112-10 ). The final FY2011 CR provided $165.3 billion in discretionary funding for accounts traditionally funded by the L-HHS-ED bill. In addition, the bill provided an estimated $557.4 billion in mandatory funding for L-HHS-ED accounts, for a total of $722.7 billion in the bill as a whole. (For additional details on amounts provided by bill title, see Table 2 .) Table 2 lists the total amount of FY2012 discretionary and mandatory L-HHS-ED funding provided or proposed, by title, compared to comparable funding provided in FY2011. The table displays the total amounts enacted for FY2012 to date, which include combined funding provided by the final FY2012 annual appropriations law ( P.L. 112-74 ) and the FY2012 disaster relief law ( P.L. 112-77 ). The table also shows proposed funding levels from the FY2012 House ( H.R. 3070 ) and Senate ( S. 1599 ) L-HHS-ED appropriations bills, as well as the FY2012 President's request. Table 2 displays funding in two ways: total budget authority provided in the bill (i.e., current bill for any fiscal year) and total budget authority available in the fiscal year (i.e., current year funding from any bill). When taking into account both mandatory and discretionary funding, HHS received more than three-quarters of the FY2011 and FY2012 L-HHS-ED appropriations (see Figure 2 for the bill composition in FY2012). This is largely due to the sizable amount of mandatory funding included in the HHS appropriation, the majority of which is for Medicaid and payments to health care trust funds. The Department of Education accounts for the next largest share of FY2011 and FY2012 appropriations: roughly 10% of total mandatory and discretionary L-HHS-ED funding in each year. Unlike HHS, however, the funds going to the Department of Education are primarily discretionary dollars. The related agencies included in the L-HHS-ED bill constitute the next largest share of funding—about 9% of total funds in both FY2011 and FY2012, with the bulk of these funds going toward mandatory benefit 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 mandatory and discretionary L-HHS-ED funding: roughly 2% in FY2011 and FY2012. When looking only at discretionary appropriations, however, the composition of L-HHS-ED funding is noticeably different (see Figure 2 ). For one thing, HHS accounts for a much smaller share of total funding, roughly 42% of all discretionary appropriations in FY2011 and FY2012. By contrast, the Department of Education represents a much larger share, accounting for 41% of discretionary-only funding in each of FY2011 and FY2012. This means that HHS and the Department of Education together account for the dominant shares of discretionary-only L-HHS-ED funding in FY2011 and FY2012 (roughly 84% combined). Meanwhile, discretionary funding for related agencies and the Department of Labor combined to account for a roughly even split of the remaining 16% of L-HHS-ED funding in FY2011 and FY2012. Table 3 shows the trends in discretionary budget authority enacted in the annual (not including supplementals) L-HHS-ED appropriations laws for FY2003 through FY2012. During these years, L-HHS-ED discretionary appropriations have grown by 24% from $132.4 billion in FY2003 to $163.9 billion in FY2012, an increase of $31.5 billion. Note, however, that this estimate is based on nominal dollars only and does not reflect effects of inflation over time. This section of the report provides a brief overview of notable budget enforcement activities, as they relate to the FY2012 appropriations process. This includes an introduction to the Budget Control Act of 2011, the House-passed FY2012 Budget Resolution, and the status of House and Senate 302(b) allocations (i.e., budget enforcement caps) for FY2012 L-HHS-ED appropriations. On August 2, 2011, President Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA; P.L. 112-25 ) into law following lengthy negotiations surrounding the national debt limit. The law included provisions authorizing increases in the debt limit, as well as provisions designed to reduce the federal deficit. One way the law seeks to reduce deficits is by establishing discretionary spending caps, which limit the amount of money that can be provided through the annual appropriations process for each of the next ten fiscal years. The FY2012 appropriations bills are the first to be affected by these discretionary spending caps. For FY2012, the BCA established an overall discretionary cap of $1.043 trillion and divided the funding under this cap into two categories: $684 billion for security spending and $359 billion for non-security spending. In FY2012, the security category is defined, per Title I of the BCA, to include funding for the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Intelligence Community Management Account (which funds the offices of the Director of National Intelligence), and all discretionary budget accounts within Budget Function 150 (international affairs). All other funding is considered to be non-security, including the entire L-HHS-ED appropriation for FY2012. The BCA allows for adjustments to annual discretionary spending caps for certain costs related to overseas contingency operations/Global War on Terror, emergency spending, and—to a limited extent—disaster relief and appropriations for continuing disability reviews and redeterminations (at the Social Security Administration) and for controlling health care fraud and abuse (at HHS). Adjustments for the latter two categories are specific to L-HHS-ED. In FY2012, total discretionary appropriations for continuing disability reviews and redeterminations ($757 million) required a cap adjustment of $483 million, which is $140 million less than the maximum allowable adjustment. Meanwhile, total discretionary FY2012 appropriations for health care fraud and abuse ($310 million) did not require any adjustment to the discretionary cap. The BCA's statutory budget caps are enforceable via a process known as sequestration. If the caps are exceeded in any year, sequestration requires the executive branch to proportionally reduce funding for all non-exempt agencies, accounts, programs, projects, and activities by the amount necessary to reduce total budget authority to the level authorized under the caps. However, in the final sequestration report on the FY2012 appropriations process, OMB concluded that the FY2012 enacted amounts are within the limit and therefore a sequestration is not required. The Senate took no action on a budget resolution for FY2012. However, the Budget Control Act provided the Senate with an overall FY2012 spending cap, commonly referred to as a 302(a) allocation. The Senate then allocated a portion of the funds available under this cap to each Senate Appropriations subcommittee, including L-HHS-ED. These amounts are commonly referred to as 302(b) allocations. Most recently, the Senate reported revised 302(b) allocations on December 17, 2011. (It is common for 302(b) allocations to be revised throughout the year to reflect actual action on appropriations bills and changes in congressional priorities.) Prior to the enactment of the BCA, the House passed a concurrent resolution on the FY2012 budget ( H.Con.Res. 34 ) on April 15, 2011. The budget resolution set broad spending targets for FY2012 and subsequent years, but did not set spending amounts for specific programs. The overall spending cap established by the House budget resolution was lower than the cap later provided by the BCA and the House has not formally reported a revised 302(a) or subcommittee 302(b)s to reflect the higher BCA levels. Table 4 displays the status of the L-HHS-ED 302(b) allocations for FY2012, as compared to total comparable FY2011 appropriations subject to that year's 302(b). Note that budget enforcement caps are applied to budget authority available in the current fiscal year (excluding emergency funding), adjusted for scorekeeping by the Congressional Budget Office. 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. Enacted FY2012 amounts in the text and tables have not been adjusted to reflect the 0.189% across-the-board rescission required by Section 527 of Division F of P.L. 112-74 for most discretionary L-HHS-ED accounts. 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 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 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects data and provides analysis on the labor market and related labor issues. The final FY2012 appropriations law provides $12.6 billion in discretionary funding for DOL. This amount is $94 million (-1%) less than the comparable FY2011 funding level of $12.7 billion and $251 million (-2%) less than the President's Budget request of $12.8 billion. (See Table 5 .) The following are some DOL highlights from the final FY2012 appropriations law ( P.L. 112-74 ), compared to comparable FY2011 funding levels and proposed funding levels from the FY2012 from the President's Budget. (See Table 6 for details.) Overall, the final FY2012 appropriations law provides $4.9 billion for programs authorized under Title I of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), a decrease of $144 million compared to the FY2011 funding level and $420 million below the Administration's FY2012 request. The WIA Adult and Youth state formula grant programs were funded at the FY2011 levels, while the Dislocated Worker state formula grant program received a reduction of $55 million from the FY2011 level. The FY2012 appropriations law continues 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 appropriations law continues with this reduction. In addition to the funding changes, the FY2012 law directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study to assess the means by which entities carrying out WIA activities in local areas match employment and training activities to current and future job opportunities. The final FY2012 appropriations law provides $50 million for the Workforce Investment Fund (WIF), which is $75 million less than the comparable FY2011 WIF funding level and $187 million less than the FY2012 President's request. The WIF, which is jointly administered by DOL and ED, was created at the President's request in FY2011 to provide competitive grants for innovative approaches to workforce development. The law provides funding for the WIF as a stand-alone appropriation, rather than adopting the Administration's proposal to redirect 8% of the funds requested for WIA and Employment Service formula grant programs to the WIF. Note that the amounts shown for WIA and ES state grants in the President's request column of Table 6 are the amounts available to each funding stream after the proposed 8% transfer to the WIF. The Administration also requested funding of $60 million for the Green Jobs Innovation Fund (GJIF). The GJIF, a competitive grant program to provide job training opportunities in green occupations and industries, was first funded in FY2010 at $40 million. However, the GJIF received no funding in FY2011 or in the final FY2012 appropriations law. Finally, regarding WIA funding, the FY2012 appropriations law funds Job Corps at the FY2011 level of $1.7 billion, but eliminates the convention of providing advance appropriations for the subsequent fiscal year (e.g., FY2013). Advance appropriations for Job Corps have typically been provided in past appropriations laws. The final FY2012 appropriations law provides the Community Service Employment for Older Americans (CSEOA) Program with $449 million (the same as FY2011). The law maintains DOL administration of CSEOA, rejecting a proposal from the FY2012 President's Budget to transfer administration of the program to HHS. The FY2012 President's Budget called for $23 million for a new State Paid Leave Fund. The fund would have provided grants to states to establish paid leave programs. These programs would have offered benefits to workers after the birth or adoption of a child and to workers who must take time off from work to care for a child, spouse, or parent who is ill. No funds were appropriated for the State Paid Leave Fund in the FY2012 law. Finally, the FY2012 appropriations law provides $264.9 million for the Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS), an increase of $9.3 million (+3.6%) from the FY2011 funding level of $255.6 million. Of this increase, $5 million is for the Veterans Workforce Investment Program (VWIP), $2 million is for the Homeless Veterans Program, and $2 million is for the Transition Assistance Program (TAP). In a separate section, the law includes a provision to allow the transfer of funds designated in the FY2011 appropriations act ( P.L. 112-10 ) for employment and training needs of young parents to other pilot projects and for the implementation of the Veterans Opportunity to Work (VOW) to Hire Heroes Act of 2011 ( P.L. 112-56 ). The FY2012 appropriations law provides $183.5 million for the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). This amount is $24.1 million (+15%) more than the FY2011 level of $159.4 million, but $14 million (-7%) less than the Administration's FY2012 request of $197.5 million. The Administration had requested the increase primarily to hire additional employees to enforce regulations and to undertake pension and health-benefit related research. The Administration requested $240.9 million for the Wage and Hour Division (WHD), an increase of $13.5 million (+6%) above the FY2011 funding level of $227.5 million. The increase in funding (to provide additional WHD auditors and inspectors) was requested to strengthen the WHD's initiative to detect and deter employee misclassification. At issue is whether workers are classified as "independent contractors" inappropriately, which has implications for these employees' access to benefits and protections extended to regular wage and salary employees. However, the FY2012 appropriations law provides no additional funding to the WHD for this initiative and instead maintains funding at the FY2011 level of $227.5 million. The Administration requested $583.4 million for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and $384.3 million for the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), reflecting increases of $24.8 million (+4%) and $22.4 million (+6%), respectively, compared to FY2011 funding levels. The increased OSHA request was for additional employees to strengthen OSHA's regulatory and whistleblower investigations. The bulk of the requested increase for MSHA was for additional resources to address the backlog of cases before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission and for the purchase of Continuous Personal Dust Monitors that provide dust concentration exposure data to MSHA and to coal miners. The final FY2012 appropriations law increases funding for OSHA by $7.2 million (+1.3%) compared to FY2011 and for MSHA by $12.2 million (+3.4%) compared to FY2011. The Administration requested $647 million for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), an increase of $36.8 million (+6%) above the FY2011 funding level of $610.2 million. The BLS request reflected in large part efforts to improve and expand the quality of several surveys that measure price changes in the U.S. economy and to establish a new National Longitudinal Study (NLS) on youth. The FY2012 law maintains BLS funding at the FY2011 level of $610.2 million. Table 6 shows the appropriations details for offices and major programs at DOL. 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. Enacted FY2012 amounts in the text and tables have not been adjusted to reflect the 0.189% across-the-board rescission required by Section 527 of Division F of P.L. 112-74 for most discretionary L-HHS-ED accounts. 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 disease (e.g., CDC). The L-HHS-ED bill also provides funding for annually appropriated components of CMS, the HHS agency responsible for the administration of Medicare, Medicaid, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP); and for implementation of the 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 AOA. These agencies work to promote the economic and social well-being of vulnerable children, families, and older Americans. 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. The final FY2012 appropriations law provides $69.8 billion in discretionary funding for HHS. This amount is $693 million (-1%) less than the comparable FY2011 funding level of $70.4 billion and $3.4 billion (-5%) less than the President's Budget request of $73.1 billion. (See Table 7 .) 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 86% of all HHS appropriations in FY2011 ($493 billion) and 87% in FY2012 ($510 billion). By contrast, when looking exclusively at discretionary appropriations, CMS constituted only 6% of discretionary HHS appropriations in both FY2011 ($3.9 billion) and FY2012 ($4.2 billion). NIH and ACF typically receive the majority of HHS discretionary appropriations. Combined, discretionary appropriations for these two agencies constituted roughly two-thirds of all discretionary HHS appropriations in both FY2011 ($48 billion) and FY2012 ($47 billion). See Figure 3 for an agency-level breakdown of FY2012 HHS appropriations. The figure compares total appropriations (i.e., mandatory plus discretionary), by HHS agency, with discretionary-only appropriations, by agency. This section discusses several important aspects of discretionary HHS appropriations. First, it provides an introduction to a special funding mechanism included in the public health budget, the Public Health Service Evaluation Tap. Next, it reviews a selection of FY2012 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. A unique budget feature of some of the agencies and programs in HHS is their receipt of funding from the Public Health Service (PHS) Evaluation Set-Aside program, also known as the Evaluation Tap. The tap provides more than a dozen HHS programs with funding beyond their regular appropriations (or in a few cases, such as programs administered by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, programs may be funded entirely by the tap). The PHS Evaluation Tap allows the Secretary of HHS to redistribute a portion of eligible PHS agency appropriations for program evaluation purposes across HHS. In the annual L-HHS-ED act, Congress specifies the maximum percentage for the set-aside, which is 2.5% of eligible appropriations in FY2012, the same as in FY2011. The President's Budget had proposed to increase the set-aside to 3.2% in FY2012. Congress also allocates a portion of the available money for transfer to specific programs, as shown in Table 8 . The funding amounts from the tap are labeled "non-add" in the table because they are not counted in the totals of appropriated funds. In some cases, an apparent change in the level of proposed or final appropriations for a program simply reflects a shifting of the share of funding supplied by appropriated funds versus funds made available through the tap; the overall level of funding available for an activity may not change greatly in such cases. The discussion below reviews a limited selection of FY2012 discretionary funding highlights for programs supported by the HHS public health agencies, as well as programs administered by CMS, ACF, and AOA. The discussion is based on discretionary funding provided by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012 ( P.L. 112-74 ), as compared to funding enacted in FY2011, proposed in the FY2012 President's Budget, and in some cases, as proposed by House ( H.R. 3070 ) and Senate ( S. 1599 ) L-HHS-ED bills for FY2012. See Table 8 for details. The final FY2012 appropriations law provides either a small increase or approximately level discretionary funding for two of the public health agencies (CDC and NIH) in the L-HHS-ED bill, while providing the other three public health agencies (HRSA, SAMHSA, and AHRQ) with amounts slightly below FY2011. By contrast, the FY2012 President's Budget had generally proposed increases for each of these agencies (except AHRQ). Specifically, the final FY2012 appropriations law funds CDC at $5.7 billion (+0.3% from FY2011), NIH at $30.7 billion (equal to FY2011), HRSA at $6.2 billion (-0.9% from FY2011), SAMHSA at $3.4 billion (-0.7% from FY2011), and AHRQ at $369 million (-0.8% from FY2011). The final FY2012 appropriations law slightly reduces overall appropriations for HRSA's health professions programs compared to FY2011, rejecting a number of the Administration's proposals in this area. For instance, the law eliminates discretionary funding for the National Health Service Corps (-$25 million from FY2011), for which the Administration had requested $123 million. (The ACA provided a separate, mandatory appropriation of $295 million for the National Health Service Corps in FY2012.) The FY2012 appropriations law also prohibits HRSA from using health professions funding for the Alternative Dental Health Care Providers Demonstration Project and rejects a President's Budget proposal to direct $255 million in new funding from the PHS Evaluation Tap toward healthcare workforce activities (the final law directs no PHS Evaluation Tap funds toward these activities). In addition, the final law maintains level funding of $268 million for HRSA's Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education program, which the Administration had proposed to eliminate. The final law generally provides level funding for HRSA's primary care programs, including $1.6 billion for community health centers (-25% from the President's request). At CDC, the final FY2012 appropriations law directs a total of $294 million to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a reduction of 7% from FY2011. The law provides these funds through a combination of new budget authority ($183 million) and PHS Evaluation Tap funding ($111 million), rejecting the Administration's FY2012 proposal to fund NIOSH solely via the PHS Evaluation Tap. The law maintains the FY2011 level of $80 million for the Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant, which the President's Budget proposed to eliminate. The final law also rejects the President's proposal to consolidate funding for multiple chronic disease prevention and health promotion programs. The law provides a total $1.2 billion for these programs in FY2012 (+9% from FY2011), of which $457 million is from the PHS Evaluation Tap. The President's Budget had indicated an intention of supplementing appropriations for chronic disease prevention and health promotion programs with additional pre-appropriated funding from the ACA, to be transferred from the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF). Many CDC and other HHS programs received supplemental funding transferred from the PPHF in FY2010 and FY2011. For FY2012, there is $1 billion available for transfer from the PPHF, but it is not yet clear how these funds will be distributed among programs. At NIH, where Congress did not provide the requested 3% increase, two factors dominated the FY2012 funding discussion. First, although the overall appropriation grew by only $2 million from FY2011, all institutes and centers receive increases because the final FY2012 appropriations law eliminates a provision (included in previous years) requiring NIH to transfer nearly $300 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The largest single increase at NIH (+$76 million) goes to the Buildings and Facilities account (which had been cut in FY2011), for an FY2012 funding level of $126 million. Second, the final law includes authorizing language (at the President's request) that establishes a new National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and abolishes the existing National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). The conference report explanatory statement displays the reallocation of NCRR funds to NCATS and other NIH entities. Although the FY2012 President's Budget had proposed to restructure SAMHSA's programs to emphasize prevention activities and support emerging issues, the final FY2012 law largely retains the existing program structure. The law does not provide funding for the Administration's proposed state prevention grants for mental health and substance abuse, which had accounted for $485 million in the President's Budget. Instead, the law increases the appropriations for two SAMHSA block grants: the Mental Health Block Grant receives $440 million (+10% from FY2011) and the Substance Abuse Block Grant receives $1.7 billion (+1% from FY2011). These increases are balanced by decreases in appropriations for two SAMHSA Programs of Regional and National Significance (PRNS): Mental Health PRNS receive $276 million (-18% from FY2011) and Substance Abuse Treatment PRNS receive $400 million (-1% from FY2011). The final FY2012 appropriations law provides $4.2 billion in discretionary funding for CMS. This amount is $241 million (+6%) more than the FY2011 funding level of $3.9 billion, but $788 million (-16%) less than the President's Budget request of $5.0 billion. The majority of the discretionary appropriation ($3.9 billion, up 7% from FY2011) is directed toward CMS program management activities, including the administration of Medicare, Medicaid, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and new private health insurance provisions established by the ACA. The remaining discretionary funds ($310 million, the same as FY2011) are directed toward program integrity efforts to detect and prevent health care fraud and abuse. Notably, the final FY2012 appropriations law does not include the provision from the House-introduced FY2012 L-HHS-ED appropriations bill ( H.R. 3070 ) that would have prohibited HHS from using any of the funds appropriated for program management to support the CMS Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (an office created after the enactment of the ACA and tasked with implementing new private health insurance requirements) or the activities developed, administered, or implemented by this office. The final FY2012 appropriations law provides $16.5 billion in discretionary funding for ACF. This amount is $715 million (-4%) less than the FY2011 funding level of $17.2 billion, but $342 million (+2%) more than the President's Budget request of $16.2 billion. Under the final FY2012 law, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) sustains the single largest cut, in dollars, among discretionary ACF programs. The law appropriates $3.5 billion for LIHEAP, which is $1.2 billion (-26%) less than the program received in FY2011, but $909 million (+40%) more than the President had requested for FY2012. The Administration's request was based on a decision to reduce LIHEAP regular funds to the level appropriated prior to FY2009 based on anticipated energy prices. The FY2012 law enacts a proposal from the FY2012 President's Budget to eliminate funding for the Job Opportunities for Low-Income Individuals program (-$1.6 million from FY2011), but rejects a related proposal to decrease funding for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), a funding stream that supports services and activities to reduce poverty. The final law maintains CSBG funding at the FY2011 level of $679 million, nearly double the amount requested by the Administration ($350 million), and does not act on the President's proposal to convert the CSBG into a competitive grant at the state level. Despite an overall decrease in ACF funding, certain ACF programs receive increases under the final FY2012 appropriations law. For instance, the law provides $8.0 billion for Head Start (+6% from FY2011) and $2.3 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (+3% from FY2011), demonstrating support for early childhood care and education programs. The final FY2012 appropriations law provides $1.47 billion in discretionary funding for AOA. This amount is $24 million (-2%) less than the FY2011 funding level of $1.50 billion and $764 million (-34%) less than the President's Budget request of $2.24 billion. The FY2012 law generally maintains level funding for the majority of AOA programs, compared to FY2011, with a few exceptions. For instance, the FY2012 law eliminates funding (-$19 million from FY2011) for Program Innovations, a funding stream that had previously been used to test and demonstrate new approaches and best practices in aging services. The final law also decreases funding for the Alzheimer's Disease Supportive Services Program ($4 million in FY2012, -65% from FY2011). The final FY2012 law rejects two President's Budget proposals to transfer existing programs from other agencies to AOA. First, the law does not transfer the Community Service Employment for Older Americans program from the Department of Labor to HHS/AOA. Second, the law does not transfer the State Health Insurance Program (SHIP), which provides one-on-one health and long-term care counseling to the aging, from CMS to AOA. In proposing these transfers, the Administration had argued that these programs could benefit from greater streamlining and integration with the supports provided by AOA's existing services for the aging. The final law provides AOA with no funding for administration of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, a voluntary insurance program established by the ACA, rejecting the President's request for $120 million. Prior to FY2012, administrative costs for CLASS had been funded by the ACA Implementation Fund (§1005 of P.L. 111-152 ). The authorizing statute anticipated that at some future time, administrative funding for CLASS would be drawn from premiums received; the Administration had indicated that the requested funding for FY2012 would be used as a bridge until that time. However, on October 14, 2011, HHS Secretary Sebelius announced that CLASS implementation had been suspended. 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 FY2012 law also reinstates a provision, removed in FY2010, prohibiting L-HHS-ED funds from being used for needle exchange programs and modifies a provision prohibiting spending on activities that advocate or promote gun control so that it applies to all HHS funds and not only to CDC. Table 8 shows the appropriations details for offices and major programs at HHS. 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. Enacted FY2012 amounts in the text and tables have not been adjusted to reflect the 0.189% across-the-board rescission required by Section 527 of Division F of P.L. 112-74 for most discretionary L-HHS-ED accounts (except Pell Grants). The federal government provides roughly 9% of overall funding for elementary and secondary education; 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 United States 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 74% 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. The final FY2012 appropriations law provides $68.2 billion in discretionary funding for ED. This amount is $190 million (-0.3%) less than the comparable FY2011 funding level of $68.3 billion and $9.2 billion (-11.9%) less than the President's Budget request of $77.4 billion. (See Table 9 .) The discussion that follows focuses on some ED highlights from the final FY2012 appropriations law ( P.L. 112-74 ), the FY2012 President's Budget request, as well as the House-introduced ( H.R. 3070 ) and Senate Appropriations Committee-reported ( S. 1599 , S.Rept. 112-84 ) FY2012 L-HHS-Ed bills. In addition, differences between these bills and FY2011 funding are discussed. (See Table 10 for details.) As in FY2011, the President's FY2012 Budget proposed a significant reorganization of Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) programs that would have consolidated many separate authorities into larger programs as part of a reauthorization of the ESEA. As a result, several ESEA program titles in the President's FY2012 budget request do not match current program titles, and as a consequence, some of the President's budget request is not directly comparable to the final FY2012 appropriations law, the House-introduced bill, and the Senate Committee-reported bill. Where comparable it is included in the discussion that follows. Discretionary programs that would have received a funding increase of $30 million or more in President's budget include Education for the Disadvantaged State Grants, School Improvement Grants, Promise Neighborhoods; Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B grants to states; Student Aid Administration, and the Institute for Education Sciences. The 21 st Century Community Learning Centers program would have received an increase in funding of $100 million, but with an expanded mission to include extended learning time programs. The final FY2012 appropriations law provided increased funding for four of these programs—Education for the Disadvantaged State Grants, Promise Neighborhoods, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part B grants to states, and Student Aid Administration. The 21 st CCLC program received level funding in FY2012. (See Table 10 .) The President's Budget recommended an increase in FY2012 funding for two programs initially authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ( P.L. 111-5 ) in FY2009; it would have funded Race to the Top at $900 million, and Investing in Innovation at $300 million. Race to the Top and Investing in Innovation were funded at $699 million and $150 million, respectively, in FY2011. The Senate Appropriations Committee-reported bill would have continued funding at the FY2011 level for both programs in FY2012, the House-introduced bill would have provided no funding for either program. The final FY2012 appropriations law provided $550 million for Race to the Top, and $150 million for the Investing in Innovation Fund. The three ED programs that received the largest cuts in funding in the final FY2012 appropriations law compared to FY2011 were Race to the Top (-$150 million), the Teacher Incentive Fund (-$99 million), and Safe Schools and Citizenship–National Programs (-$54 million). In addition, the final FY2012 appropriations law eliminated funding for several programs that were funded in FY2011, including Foreign Language Assistance, Teaching of Traditional American History, Voluntary Public School Choice, Alcohol Abuse Reduction, Construction funding for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, the Institute for International Public Policy, Javits Fellowships, and Building Modernization under Departmental Management. All of the largest ESEA programs dedicated primarily to literacy—including Striving Readers, Even Start, and Literacy through School Libraries, received no funding in FY2011. The FY2012 President's Budget requested $383 million for a new comprehensive preschool-grade 12 literacy initiative and the Senate Appropriations Committee-reported bill would have provided $183 million for a comprehensive Striving Readers program. The House-introduced bill did not propose any FY2012 funding for a dedicated literacy program. The final FY2012 appropriations law provided $160 million for the Striving Readers program. The final FY2011 CR included language directing the Administration to set aside an unspecified portion of the Race to the Top (RTT) appropriation for competitive grants to improve early childhood care and education ("early learning challenge" grants). The Administration ultimately reserved $500 million for these RTT-Early Learning Challenge grants in FY2011. The FY2012 L-HHS-ED bill introduced in the House provided no funding for RTT (or its early learning component), but the report language for the both the Senate bill ( S.Rept. 112-84 ) and the final FY2012 appropriations law ( H.Rept. 112-331 ) specifies that the FY2012 RTT program should include a robust early learning component. Under the FY2012 President's Budget, discretionary funding for Pell Grants would have been increased from almost $23 billion in FY2011 to $28.6 billion in FY2012. The President's Budget also included proposals to reduce costs in the Pell Grant program, as well as the William D. Ford Direct Loan (DL) Program, while redirecting the mandatory funding from these savings for future use in the Pell Grant program. One of these proposals, the elimination of a provision that allowed an eligible student to receive up to two Pell Grant awards in one award year, was enacted in the final FY2011 CR. This change effectively reduces the need for discretionary funding in FY2012 by approximately $3.2 billion. Another proposal, the elimination of the availability of Subsidized Stafford Loans to graduate and professional students, was ultimately enacted in the BCA, effectively reducing the need for discretionary funding in FY2012 by an additional $10 billion. The final FY2012 appropriations law provides $22.8 billion in discretionary funding for the Federal Pell Grant program. The discretionary base maximum award for award year (AY) 2012-13 will be $4,860, and the total maximum award for which a student is eligible in AY2012-13 will be $5,550. These amounts are unchanged from the previous award year. Notably, the FY2012 appropriations law exempts Pell Grant funding from the across-the-board rescission of 0.189% (this rescission does apply to other federal student aid programs). The FY2012 appropriations law also includes several policy provisions that make changes to the Student Loan and Pell Grant programs (see box). Table 10 shows the appropriations details for the offices and major programs at ED. 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 and Survivors 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 discussed in the text are based on unrounded amounts. Enacted FY2012 amounts in the text and tables have not been adjusted to reflect the 0.189% across-the-board rescission required by Section 527 of Division F of P.L. 112-74 for most discretionary L-HHS-ED accounts. The annual FY2012 appropriations law provides $13.4 billion in discretionary funding for related agencies included in L-HHS-ED appropriations. In addition, the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2012 ( P.L. 112-77 ), provides $493 million in discretionary funding for the Social Security Administration (one of the L-HHS-ED related agencies), for a combined FY2012 total of $13.9 billion in discretionary appropriations. This amount is $12 million (+0.1%) more than the comparable FY2011 funding level of $13.8 billion and $1.3 billion (-8.7%) less than the FY2012 President's request of $15.2 billion. (See Table 11 .) 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 accounts for 97% of the entire related agencies appropriation in FY2012 ($64 billion) and 96% of the appropriation in FY2011 ($61.4 billion). The bulk of mandatory SSA funding from the L-HHS-ED bill supports the Supplemental Security Income program ($52.4 billion in FY2012; $49.9 billion in FY2011). When looking exclusively at discretionary funding, the SSA remains the largest component of the related agencies appropriation, constituting roughly 83% of discretionary funds in the FY2012 ($11.5 billion) and FY2011 ($11.5 billion). 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 constitutes roughly 2% of all funding and 8% of discretionary funding in FY2012 ($1.1 billion) and FY2011 ($1.1 billion). Typically, each of the remaining related agencies receives less than $1 billion from the annual L-HHS-ED appropriations bill. The following are some highlights for related agencies from the FY2012 annual appropriations law ( P.L. 112-74 ), as supplemented by the FY2012 disaster relief appropriations law ( P.L. 112-77 ), compared to comparable FY2011 funding levels and proposed funding levels for FY2012 from the President's Budget. (See Table 12 for details.) The House version of the L-HHS-ED appropriations bill would have eliminated funding for a number of Corporations for National and Community Service (CNCS) programs, such as Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) and AmeriCorps State Grants and would have reduced overall CNCS funding for FY2012 by 75% from the FY2011 level. The final L-HHS-ED appropriations bill, however, includes funding for all but one CNCS program. The Learn and Serve America program, which did not receive funding in FY2011, does not receive any funding in the FY2012 L-HHS-ED bill. The House bill would have also eliminated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The final FY2012 appropriations law provides the CPB with $445 million in two-year advance funding, the same amount it received in FY2011, but less than the President's request of $451 million. However, the final law provides no funding for CBP's digitization program, which is a cut of $6 million from FY2011 and the FY2012 President's Budget. The Social Security Administration (SSA) will have approximately the same amount to administer its programs and maintain the integrity of the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs in FY2012 as it did in FY2011. The FY2012 annual appropriations law ( P.L. 112-74 ) provides $11.0 billion for Limitation on Administrative Expenses and program integrity activities. The Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2012 ( P.L. 112-77 ) provides an additional $483 million to the SSA for program integrity activities in FY2012 bringing the total to $11.4 billion, approximately the same funding level as FY2011. Note that all of this funding, regardless of the bill by which it is appropriated, is expected to be subject to the 0.189% across-the-board rescission of discretionary appropriations required by Section 527 of Division F of P.L. 112-74 . The National Healthcare Workforce Commission was created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ( P.L. 111-148 ) and its members were appointed by the Comptroller General on September 30, 2010. The President requested $3 million for the commission, but no funding is provided in the L-HHS-ED appropriations bill for FY2012. The L-HHS-ED bill contains a policy provision prohibiting the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from using any appropriated funds to issue any new directive or regulation to provide employees with the means to vote electronically for collective bargaining representation. Table 12 shows the appropriations details for offices and major programs of the L-HHS-ED Related Agencies. 

Summary: This report provides an overview of actions taken by Congress to provide FY2012 appropriations for the accounts funded by the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, 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 and Education. It provides annual appropriations for most agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services, with certain exceptions (e.g., the Food and Drug Administration is funded via the Agriculture appropriations bill). The L-HHS-ED bill also provides funding for more than a dozen related agencies, including the Social Security Administration. The bill includes discretionary and mandatory funding, but this report focuses primarily on discretionary funding. On December 23, 2011, following several short-term continuing resolutions for FY2012, President Obama signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012 (P.L. 112-74) and the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2012 (P.L. 112-77). Combined, these two appropriations laws provide $164 billion in discretionary funding for L-HHS-ED, which is 0.6% less than the comparable FY2011 funding level of $165 billion and 8.6% less than the FY2012 President's Budget request of $179 billion. In addition, the FY2012 annual appropriations law (P.L. 112-74) provides an estimated $577 billion in mandatory L-HHS-ED funding, for a total of $741 billion for L-HHS-ED as a whole. Note that the FY2012 amounts discussed here and throughout the report have not been adjusted to reflect the 0.189% across-the-board rescission required by P.L. 112-74, Division F, for most discretionary L-HHS-ED appropriations. Prior to the enactment of P.L. 112-74, both the House and Senate had initiated action on full-year FY2012 L-HHS-ED appropriations. On September 29, the House introduced a bill (H.R. 3070) that would have provided nearly $160 billion in discretionary funding for L-HHS-ED accounts. On September 22, the Senate Committee on Appropriations reported a bill (S. 1599, S.Rept. 112-84) that would have provided $165 billion in discretionary funding for L-HHS-ED accounts. Department of Labor (DOL): The FY2012 annual appropriations law provides $12.6 billion in discretionary funding for DOL. This amount is 0.7% less than the comparable FY2011 funding level of $12.7 billion and 2% less than the FY2012 President's request of $12.8 billion. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): The FY2012 annual appropriations law provides $69.8 billion in discretionary funding for HHS. This amount is 1% less than the comparable FY2011 funding level of $70.4 billion and 5% less than the FY2012 President's request of $73.1 billion. Department of Education (ED): The FY2012 annual appropriations law provides $68.2 billion in discretionary funding for ED. This amount is 0.3% less than the comparable FY2011 funding level of $68.4 billion and 12% less than the FY2012 President's request of $77.4 billion. Related Agencies: The FY2012 annual appropriations law provides $13.4 billion in discretionary funding for related agencies included in L-HHS-ED appropriations. In addition, the FY2012 disaster relief appropriations law (P.L. 112-77) provides $493 million in discretionary funding for the Social Security Administration (one of the L-HHS-ED related agencies), for a combined total of $13.9 billion. This amount is 0.1% more than the comparable FY2011 funding level of $13.8 billion and 9% less than the FY2012 President's request of $15.2 billion.