In the final days of 2022, Congress passed and President Biden signed into law a bipartisan $1.7 trillion “Omnibus” or government funding bill that keeps government operations funded through fiscal year (FY) 2023.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (H.R. 2617) included all twelve FY23 spending bills and authorizing language for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), among many other provisions. The package represented a significant win for the medical research community as 2023 is expected to be a much more challenging environment for health and research investments due to a split Congress.
The FY 2023 Omnibus includes $47.459 billion for the NIH, $9.2 billion for the CDC, and $1.5 billion for ARPA-H. The NIH figure represents a $2.5 billion increase (+5.6%) over the comparable FY 2022 level and includes the full $1.1 billion provided to the NIH in FY 2023 through the Innovation Account in the 21st Century Cures Act.
Unfortunately, the funding increase for NIDCR (+3.8%) lags the percentage increases received by other NIH institutes. The bill appropriates $520.163 million for NIDCR in FY 2023, or $18,932,000 above the FY22 level. AADOCR will advocate for greater proportional increases for NIDCR within the NIH budget in the FY 2024 appropriations process.
Other highlights from the bill include:
- CDC Division of Oral Health: $20.25 million (+2.5%)
- HRSA Title VII Oral Health Training: $42.67 million (+4.9%)
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ): $373.5 million (+6.6%)
- National Science Foundation (NSF): $9.539 billion (+7.9%)
The Omnibus bill also includes language authorizing ARPA-H, which was funded in FY 2022 without formal authorization by Congress. ARPA-H remains situated under NIH, though FY 2023 funding ($1.5 billion) is provided through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Notably, the legislation creates a separate funding stream for ARPA-H, which will help ensure that the new agency remains independent and supplements, rather than supplants, the important work of NIH institutes and centers, such as NIDCR.
Finally, there were a few items of note in the report language from the Labor-HHS segment of the bill:
National Dental Practice-Based Research Network
The agreement recommends that NIDCR continues funding support of National Dental Practice-Based Research Networks.
Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Special Projects of Regional and National Significance (SPRANS)
The agreement includes the following set-asides within SPRANS: Within the total for Oral Health, the agreement includes $250,000 for demonstration projects.
HRSA Oral Health Literacy
The agreement includes $300,000 to continue the development of an oral health awareness and education campaign across relevant HRSA divisions, including the Health Centers Program, Oral Health Workforce, Maternal and Child Health, Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, and Rural Health. The Committee directs HRSA to identify oral health literacy strategies that are evidence-based and focused on oral health care prevention and education, including prevention of oral disease such as early childhood and other caries, periodontal disease, and oral cancer.