Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
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Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education: FY2026 Appropriations
May 28, 2026
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
R48970
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education: FY2026 Appropriations
This report offers an overview of the FY2026 Departments of Labor, Health and Human
Services, and Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) appropriations bill. This bill
includes all accounts funded through the annual appropriations process at the U.S.
Department of Labor (DOL) and U.S. Department of Education (ED). It also provides
annual appropriations for most agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS), with certain exceptions (e.g., the Food and Drug
Administration), and for more than a dozen related agencies (including the Social
Security Administration).
R48970
May 28, 2026
Karen E. Lynch,
Coordinator
Specialist in Social Policy
Jessica Tollestrup,
Coordinator
Specialist in Social Policy
This report primarily focuses on regular FY2026 LHHS discretionary funding enacted during the annual
appropriations process. Totals generally do not include emergency-designated funds, except as noted. In general,
no emergency-designated funds were proposed or enacted for LHHS programs and activities in FY2026; a limited
amount of emergency-designated appropriations were provided to LHHS in FY2024 and FY2025.
FY2026 Appropriations
FY2026 LHHS Omnibus: On February 3, 2026, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (FY2026
LHHS omnibus; H.R. 7148; P.L. 119-75) was signed into law by the President, providing full-year annual
appropriations for LHHS (Division B). Annual discretionary LHHS appropriations totaled $226.1 billion (0.4%
less than FY2024 enacted, 0.3% more than FY2025, and 29.9% more than the FY2026 President’s request). It
also provided $1.513 trillion in mandatory funding, for a combined LHHS total of $1.739 trillion. The distribution
of discretionary funding was as follows:
•
•
•
•
DOL: $13.7 billion, 0.2% less than FY2024 and 0.5% more than FY2025.
HHS: $116.4 billion, 0.9% less than FY2024 and 0.2% more than FY2025.
ED: $79.0 billion, 0.1% less than FY2024 and 0.3% more than FY2025.
Related Agencies: $17.1 billion, 1.4% more than FY2024 and 1.0% more than FY2025.
FY2026 Continuing Resolutions: At the start of the fiscal year (October 1, 2025), a funding lapse commenced,
resulting in a government shutdown that affected many LHHS programs and activities; that lapse ended on
November 12, 2025, with the enactment of temporary LHHS funding in a continuing resolution (CR) (Division A
of H.R. 5371; P.L. 119-37). The CR funded LHHS programs and activities (and the activities under the purview of
several other appropriations acts) through January 30, 2026. Discretionary programs generally were funded at the
same rate, and under the same conditions, as in FY2025; whereas appropriated entitlements were funded at their
current law levels. The CR also included one provision that was specific to LHHS (§155). When annual
appropriations for LHHS were not yet enacted at the time the CR expired, a second funding lapse commenced,
ending with the enactment of full-year appropriations on February 3.
FY2026 LHHS House Action: On September 9, 2025, the House Appropriations Committee voted to report its
version of the FY2026 LHHS bill (35-28). The measure was subsequently reported on September 11, as H.R.
5304 (H.Rept. 119-271). As reported, the House committee bill would have provided $202.2 billion in
discretionary LHHS funds (10.9% less than FY2024 enacted, 10.3% less than FY2025, and $16.1 billion more
than the FY2026 President’s request). In addition, it would have provided an estimated $1.513 trillion in
mandatory funding, for a combined LHHS total of $1.715 trillion. The distribution of proposed discretionary
funding was as follows:
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Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
•
•
•
•
DOL: $9.6 billion, 30.0% less than FY2024 and 29.6% less than FY2025.
HHS: $109.5 billion, 6.8% less than FY2024 and 5.7% less than FY2025.
ED: $66.9 billion, 15.4% less than FY2024 and 15.1% less than FY2025.
Related Agencies: $16.3 billion, 3.3% less than FY2024 and 3.8% less than FY2025.
FY2026 LHHS Senate Action: On July 31, 2025, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to report its
version of the FY2026 LHHS bill (26-3). The measure was subsequently reported that same day as S. 2587
(S.Rept. 119-55). As reported, the bill would have provided $226.4 billion in discretionary LHHS funds (0.2%
less than comparable FY2024 enacted levels, 0.5% more than FY2025, and 30.1% more than the FY2026
President’s request). In addition, it would have provided an estimated $1.513 trillion in mandatory funding, for a
combined LHHS total of $1.740 trillion. The distribution of proposed discretionary funding was as follows:
•
•
•
•
DOL: $13.7 billion, 0.2% less than FY2024 and 0.5% more than FY2025.
HHS: $116.6 billion, 0.7% less than FY2024 and 0.4% more than FY2025.
ED: $79.0 billion, 0.1% less than FY2024 and 0.3% more than FY2025.
Related Agencies: $17.1 billion, 1.8% more than FY2024 and 1.3% more than FY2025.
FY2026 President’s Budget Request: On May 2, President Trump submitted to Congress an outline of his
discretionary funding priorities for FY2026. Additional documents related to the budget request were submitted in
the weeks that followed, including congressional justifications for individual departments and agencies. The
President requested $174.1 billion in discretionary funding for accounts funded by the LHHS bill (23.3% less than
FY2024 enacted and 22.8% less than FY2025). In addition, the President requested $1.513 trillion in annually
appropriated mandatory funding, for an LHHS total of $1.687 trillion. The distribution of requested discretionary
funding was as follows:
•
•
•
•
DOL: $9.0 billion, 33.9% less than FY2024 and 33.5% less than FY2025.
HHS: $84.0 billion, 28.4% less than FY2024 and 27.6% less than FY2025.
ED: $66.7 billion, 15.6% less than FY2024 and 15.3% less than FY2025.
Related Agencies: $14.3 billion, 15.0% less than FY2024 and 15.4% less than FY2025.
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Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Report Roadmap and Useful Terminology ...................................................................................... 1
Scope of the Report ................................................................................................................... 2
Important Budget Concepts ............................................................................................................. 3
Mandatory vs. Discretionary Budget Authority ........................................................................ 3
Total Budget Authority Provided in the Bill vs. Total Budget Authority Available in
the Fiscal Year ........................................................................................................................ 4
Recent Action Related to LHHS Appropriations ............................................................................. 4
FY2026 Annual LHHS Appropriations ..................................................................................... 5
FY2026 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act ................................................................... 5
FY2026 Continuing Appropriations .......................................................................................... 6
Prior Congressional Action on an FY2026 LHHS Bill ............................................................. 7
FY2026 LHHS Action in the House (H.R. 5304) ............................................................... 7
FY2026 LHHS Action in the Senate (S. 2624) ................................................................... 7
FY2026 President’s Budget Request ......................................................................................... 8
Conclusion of FY2025 Appropriations Process ........................................................................ 8
Overarching LHHS Considerations for the FY2026 Appropriations Cycle .................................... 8
Determining FY2025 Funding Levels for Certain Accounts and Programs ............................. 9
FY2026 President’s Budget Submission Level of Detail and Structure ................................. 10
Impoundment Control Act Enacted FY2026 and FY2027 Rescissions to the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) ......................................................................... 11
Selected Appropriations and Related Issues Addressed by the FY2026 LHHS
Omnibus ............................................................................................................................... 12
Calculation and Display of Funding, and Treatment of Congressional Report Language ............ 14
Dollars and Percentages in this Report ................................................................................... 14
Report Language and Incorporation by Reference.................................................................. 15
LHHS Funding by Bill Title (FY2024-FY2026) ........................................................................... 17
FY2026 LHHS Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) and Community Project
Funding (CPF) ............................................................................................................................ 20
Department of Labor (DOL) ......................................................................................................... 21
About DOL ............................................................................................................................. 22
FY2026 Caveats ...................................................................................................................... 22
FY2026 DOL Appropriations Overview ................................................................................. 22
Selected DOL Highlights ........................................................................................................ 23
Employment and Training Administration (ETA)............................................................. 24
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) ...................................................................................... 25
Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) .................................................................. 26
Labor-Related General Provisions .................................................................................... 26
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)....................................................................... 30
About HHS .............................................................................................................................. 30
Proposed FY2026 HHS Reorganization ........................................................................... 31
FY2026 Caveats ...................................................................................................................... 32
FY2026 HHS Appropriations Overview ................................................................................. 33
Special Public Health Funding Mechanisms ........................................................................... 35
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Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
Public Health Service Evaluation Tap............................................................................... 35
Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF) ..................................................................... 37
21st Century Cures Act, NIH Innovation Account ............................................................ 37
Selected HHS Highlights by Agency ...................................................................................... 38
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) .................................................. 38
National Institutes of Health (NIH) .................................................................................. 40
Administration for Children and Families (ACF) ............................................................. 42
Restrictions Related to Certain Controversial Issues ........................................................ 43
Department of Education (ED) ...................................................................................................... 52
About ED ................................................................................................................................ 53
FY2026 Caveats ...................................................................................................................... 53
FY2026 ED Appropriations Overview.................................................................................... 54
Selected ED Highlights ........................................................................................................... 55
Education for the Disadvantaged ...................................................................................... 55
School Improvement ......................................................................................................... 56
Innovation and Improvement ............................................................................................ 56
Institute of Education Sciences ......................................................................................... 57
Departmental Management ............................................................................................... 57
Additional ED Issues for FY2026..................................................................................... 58
Related Agencies ........................................................................................................................... 62
FY2026 Caveats ...................................................................................................................... 62
FY2026 Related Agencies Appropriations Overview ............................................................. 62
Selected Related Agencies Highlights..................................................................................... 64
SSA Limitation on Administrative Expenses (LAE) ........................................................ 64
Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) ............................................. 64
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) ........................................................... 65
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ......................................................................... 65
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) ..................................................................... 66
Figures
Figure 1. FY2026 Enacted LHHS Appropriations .......................................................................... 6
Figure 2. FY2026 Enacted LHHS Appropriations by Title ........................................................... 20
Figure 3. FY2026 Enacted HHS Appropriations by Agency......................................................... 34
Tables
Table 1. Status of Full-Year LHHS Appropriations Legislation, FY2026 ....................................... 5
Table 2. LHHS Appropriations Overview by Bill Title, FY2024-FY2026 ................................... 17
Table 3. DOL Appropriations Overview ....................................................................................... 23
Table 4. Detailed DOL Appropriations .......................................................................................... 27
Table 5. HHS Appropriations Overview........................................................................................ 33
Table 6. HHS Appropriations Totals and Directed Transfers by Agency ...................................... 45
Table 7. HHS Discretionary Appropriations and Directed Transfers for Selected
Programs or Activities, by Agency............................................................................................. 48
Table 8. ED Appropriations Overview .......................................................................................... 54
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Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
Table 9. Detailed ED Appropriations ............................................................................................ 60
Table 10. Related Agencies Appropriations Overview .................................................................. 63
Table 11. Detailed Related Agencies Appropriations .................................................................... 66
Table A-1. LHHS Discretionary Appropriations: Comparison of FY2024 Enacted,
FY2025 Enacted, the FY2026 House Committee Bill, the FY2026 Senate Committee
Bill, and FY2026 Enacted .......................................................................................................... 73
Table A-2. LHHS Appropriations Overview, by Bill Title: FY2024-FY2026............................... 74
Appendixes
Appendix. LHHS and Budget Enforcement .................................................................................. 69
Contacts
Author Information........................................................................................................................ 76
Congressional Research Service
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
Introduction
This report provides an overview of FY2026 enacted and proposed appropriations for accounts
traditionally funded in the appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human
Services, and Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS). This bill provides discretionary and
mandatory appropriations to three federal departments: the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the U.S. Department of Education
(ED). In addition, the bill provides annual appropriations for more than a dozen related agencies,
including the Social Security Administration (SSA). For FY2026, LHHS appropriations were
enacted in Division B of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (FY2026 LHHS
omnibus; H.R. 7148, P.L. 119-75).
Discretionary funds represent roughly one-eighth of the total funds appropriated in the annual
LHHS bill. Nevertheless, the LHHS bill is typically the largest single source of discretionary
funds for domestic nondefense federal programs among the various appropriations bills. (The
Defense appropriations bill is the largest source of discretionary funds among all federal
programs.) Because the appropriations process both provides and controls discretionary funding
(concepts discussed further in the “Mandatory vs. Discretionary Budget Authority” section), the
bulk of this report is focused on these funds.
The LHHS bill often includes contentious issues, likely because of the size of its funding and the
scope of its programs, as well as various related social policy issues addressed in the bill, such as
restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion and for research on human embryos, stem
cells, and gun violence.
Congressional clients may consult the LHHS experts list in CRS Report R42638, Appropriations:
CRS Experts for information on which analysts to contact at the Congressional Research Service
(CRS) with questions on specific agencies and programs funded in the LHHS bill.
Scope of the Report: Emergency-Designated Discretionary Funding
This report primarily focuses on regular FY2026 LHHS discretionary funding proposed during the annual
appropriations process. The LHHS emergency discretionary funding that was enacted for FY2024 and FY2025 is
generally not included in the budgetary amounts discussed or table totals presented in the main body of the
report. Such spending is presented below the table totals and is in addition to regular appropriations. The
exceptions to this general rule, all within the “Department of Health and Human Services” section of this report, are noted.
Report Roadmap and Useful Terminology
This report is divided into multiple sections. The opening sections explain the scope of the LHHS
bill (and hence, the scope of this report), the important terminology and concepts that carry
throughout the report, major recent congressional actions on LHHS appropriations, overarching
issues that affected the FY2026 cycle, and an explanation of how CRS calculates the numbers in
this report and treats report language. This is followed by a high-level summary and analysis of
enacted appropriations for FY2026 compared to FY2024 and FY2025 funding levels, and those
initially proposed for FY2026. The report then provides overview sections for each of the major
titles of the bill: DOL, HHS, ED, and Related Agencies (RA). These sections discuss selected
highlights from FY2026 enacted funding levels compared to FY2024 and FY2025, as well as
those initially proposed for FY2026. (Note that the distribution of funds is sometimes illustrated
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Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
by figures, the depicted amounts for which in all cases are based on the FY2026 enacted LHHS
appropriations.1)
The Appendix provides a summary of budget enforcement activities for FY2026 that are relevant
to LHHS. This includes information on mandatory funding sequestration pursuant to the
Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (P.L. 119-177; BBEDCA), as
amended, discretionary funding budget enforcement in the absence of statutory discretionary
spending limits or a budget resolution, and current-year funding levels.
Scope of the Report
This report focuses on appropriations to agencies and accounts that are subject to the jurisdiction
of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies subcommittees of the
House and Senate appropriations committees (i.e., accounts traditionally funded via the LHHS
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 LHHS bill provides appropriations for the following federal departments and agencies:
•
•
•
•
the U.S. Department of Labor;
most agencies at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, except for
the Food and Drug Administration (funded through the Agriculture
appropriations bill), the Indian Health Service (funded through the InteriorEnvironment appropriations bill), and the Agency for Toxic Substances and
Disease Registry (also funded through the Interior-Environment appropriations
bill);
the U.S. Department of Education; and
more than a dozen related agencies, including the Social Security Administration,
the Corporation for National and Community Service (sometimes referred to as
AmeriCorps), the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Labor
Relations Board, and the Railroad Retirement Board.
Funding totals displayed in this report do not reflect amounts provided outside of the annual
appropriations process. Certain direct spending programs, such as Social Security 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 provided through the annual appropriations
process (see related discussion in the “Mandatory vs. Discretionary Budget Authority” section).
1 The figures reflect the distribution of FY2026 enacted appropriations. However, the FY2026 enacted distribution of
funds (as measured by the relative share of funds going toward a particular department or agency) is also generally
illustrative of the distribution of funds in FY2024 and 2025 appropriations, and those proposed by the FY2026
President’s budget, the Senate committee bill, and the House committee bill.
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Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
Important Budget Concepts
Mandatory vs. Discretionary Budget Authority2
The LHHS bill includes both discretionary and mandatory budget authority. While all
discretionary spending is provided through the annual appropriations process, only a portion of
mandatory budget authority 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 discretion over the amounts
provided for appropriated entitlements; rather, the authorizing statute controls 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.3 Examples of
appropriated entitlements include Medicaid and the Supplemental Security Income program.
Most mandatory spending is not provided through the annual appropriations process, but rather
through budget authority provided by the program’s authorizing statute (e.g., Social Security
benefits payments). The funding amounts in this report do not include budget authority provided
outside of the appropriations process. Instead, the amounts reflect only those funds, discretionary
and mandatory, that are provided through appropriations acts.
As displayed in this report, mandatory amounts displayed for the FY2026 President’s budget
submission reflect current-law (or current services) estimates; they generally do not include the
President’s proposed changes to a mandatory spending program’s authorizing statute that might
affect total spending. (In general, such proposals are usually excluded from this report, as they
typically would be enacted in authorizing legislation. Moreover, the FY2026 President’s budget
generally did not include any such proposals.)
The report focuses most closely on discretionary funding because discretionary funding receives
the bulk of congressional attention during the appropriations process. (While the LHHS bill
includes more mandatory funding than discretionary funding, the appropriators generally have
less discretion in adjusting mandatory funding levels than discretionary funding levels.)
Mandatory spending is subject to budget enforcement processes that include sequestration. In
general, sequestration involves largely across-the-board reductions that are made to certain
categories of mandatory funding after it has been enacted, including some of the spending in the
LHHS bill. This is discussed further in the Appendix.
2 For definitions of these and other budget terms, see U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), A Glossary of
Terms Used in the Federal Budget Process, GAO-05-734SP, September 1, 2005, https://www.gao.gov/products/gao05-734sp. (Terms of interest may include appropriated entitlement, direct spending, discretionary, entitlement
authority, and mandatory.)
3 Sometimes appropriations measures include amendments to laws authorizing mandatory spending programs and
thereby change the amount of mandatory appropriations needed. Because such amendments are legislative in nature,
they may violate parliamentary rules separating authorizations and appropriations. For more information, see CRS
Report R42388, The Congressional Appropriations Process: An Introduction.
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Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
Total Budget Authority Provided in the Bill vs. Total Budget
Authority Available in the Fiscal Year
Budget authority is the amount of money a federal agency is legally authorized 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. An additional related concept,
forward funding, applies to appropriations that become available during the last quarter of the
current fiscal year and continue into at least one future fiscal year. These delayed periods of
availability are intended to prevent funding shortfalls late in the fiscal year or to mitigate effects
of a funding gap the following year. More specifically, for the largest ED formula grant programs
to states and the DOL vocational training programs, a forward funding schedule is intended to
enable significant obligations to occur during the summer for activities in the upcoming school
year.
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.4 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).5
As the annual appropriations process unfolds, the amount of current-year budget authority is to be
measured against 302(b) allocation ceilings (budget enforcement caps for appropriations
subcommittees that traditionally emerge following the budget resolution process, see Appendix).
The process of measuring appropriations against these spending ceilings takes into account
budget authority for the current fiscal year, regardless of when it was enacted, and is subject to
scorekeeping adjustments, which are made by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to reflect
conventions and special instructions of Congress.6 Unless otherwise specified, appropriations
levels displayed in this report do not reflect additional scorekeeping adjustments. (Those
scorekeeping adjustments are displayed at the bottom of Table 2)
Recent Action Related to LHHS Appropriations
This section provides a brief legislative history and topline funding totals for enacted FY2026
LHHS appropriations, prior congressional and President’s budget proposals for FY2026, and
LHHS appropriations enacted for FY2025.
4 Such figures include advance appropriations provided in the bill for future fiscal years, but do not include advance
appropriations provided in prior years’ appropriations bills that become available in the current year. For this report, the
notable exception to this general rule is two rescissions proposed by the House Committee bill of FY2026
appropriations at ED that were enacted in FY2025. An additional related exception is the rescission proposed by the
FY2026 President’s budget to the FY2026 and FY2027 advance appropriations to the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting. (These advance appropriations were enacted in FY2024 and FY2025 LHHS appropriations.) See the
discussion of these in the “Department of Education (ED)” and “Related Agencies” sections of this report.
5 Such figures exclude advance appropriations for future years, but include advance appropriations from prior years that
become available in the given fiscal year.
6 For more information on scorekeeping, see CRS Report 98-560, Baselines and Scorekeeping in the Federal Budget
Process. See also a discussion of key scorekeeping guidelines included in the joint explanatory statement
accompanying the conference report to the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (H.Rept. 105-217, pp. 1007-1014); CBO,
CBO Explains Budgetary Scorekeeping Guidelines, January 2021, https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2021-01/56507Scorekeeping.pdf; and CRS Report R47705, Congressional Rules Pertaining to Changes in Mandatory Program
Spending in Appropriations Bills (CHIMPs).
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FY2026 Annual LHHS Appropriations
Table 1 provides a timeline of major legislative actions for full-year LHHS proposals, which are
discussed in greater detail below.
Table 1. Status of Full-Year LHHS Appropriations Legislation, FY2026
Subcommittee
Approval
House
Senate
9/2/2025 —
11-7
Full Committee
Approval
House
Senate
H.R. 5304
(H.Rept.
119-271)
9/11/2025
35-28
S. 2587
(S.Rept.
119-55)
7/31/2025
26-3
Initial Floor
Consideration
House
—
Resolution of House and
Senate Differences
Senate
Conf.
Report
—
—
House
Final
Passage
Senate
Final
Passage
H.R. 7148,
Division B
2/3/2026
217-214
H.R. 7148,
Division B
1/30/2026
71-29
Public
Law
P.L. 119-75
2/3/2026
Source: CRS Appropriations Status Table.
FY2026 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act
Full-year FY2026 appropriations for LHHS were enacted on February 3, 2026, when the Further
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (H.R. 7148; P.L. 119-75) was signed into law by the
President. The FY2026 LHHS omnibus provided full-year appropriations for five of the annual
appropriations acts in Divisions A-F (no Division C was included in the act), with LHHS
appropriations being provided in Division B. Prior to its enactment, the final version of the
measure was approved by the Senate on January 30 (71-29), and the House on February 3 (217214).
See Figure 1 for a breakdown of FY2026 discretionary and mandatory LHHS appropriations
enacted in the FY2026 LHHS omnibus.7 Annual discretionary LHHS appropriations totaled about
$226 billion. This amount is 0.4% less than FY2024 enacted, 0.3% more than FY2025, and
29.9% more than the FY2026 President’s budget request. The omnibus also provided $1.513
trillion in mandatory funding, for a combined LHHS total of $1.739 trillion.
7 While the percentages in this figure were calculated based on amounts in the FY2026 LHHS omnibus, they are
generally also illustrative, within a few percentage points, of the share of mandatory and discretionary funds in FY2024
enacted, the FY2025 estimate, the FY2026 President’s budget, the FY2026 House committee bill, and the FY2026
Senate committee bill.
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Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
Figure 1. FY2026 Enacted LHHS Appropriations
Source: Amounts in this figure are generally drawn from or calculated based on data contained in the
explanatory statement accompanying the FY2026 LHHS omnibus (P.L. 119-75) available in the Congressional
Record, vol. 172, no. 15, book II, January 22, 2026, pp. H1590-H1660. Enacted totals for FY2026 do not include
contingent or indefinite discretionary appropriations. For consistency with source materials, amounts in this
figure generally do not reflect mandatory spending sequestration, where applicable, nor do they reflect any
transfers or reprogramming of funds pursuant to executive authorities. CRS calculations do, however, include
LHHS funding provided to HHS pursuant to the 21st Century Cures Act (P.L. 114-255), as amended.
Notes: Details may not add to totals due to rounding. Amounts in this figure (1) reflect all budget authority
appropriated in the bill, regardless of the year in which funds become available (i.e., totals do not include
advances from prior-year appropriations, but do include advances for subsequent years provided in this bill); (2)
have generally not been adjusted to reflect scorekeeping; (3) comprise only those funds provided for agencies
and accounts subject to the jurisdiction of the LHHS subcommittees of the House and Senate appropriations
committees; and (4) do not include appropriations that occur outside of appropriations bills or that are
emergency-designated.
FY2026 Continuing Appropriations
Congress and the President did not reach agreement on full-year or temporary FY2026
appropriations for LHHS prior to the start of the fiscal year. On October 1, 2025, a funding lapse
commenced, resulting in a government shutdown affecting many LHHS programs and activities.8
The funding lapse concluded with the enactment of an FY2026 continuing resolution (CR), which
was signed into law on November 12, 2025 (Division A of H.R. 5371; P.L. 119-37). The CR
provided continuing appropriations for LHHS through January 30, 2026. H.R. 5371 was
introduced by Representative Cole, the House Appropriations Committee Chairman, on
September 16, 2025. It initially passed the House on September 19, 2025 (217-212). The Senate
8 Ahead of October 1, 2025, many LHHS entities published FY2026 contingency plans for a possible lapse in
appropriations, the purpose of which was to generally identify activities that would cease or continue during a lapse.
For example, see the landing page for the FY2026 HHS contingency plans dated September 25, 2025
(https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/fy-2026-hhs-contingency-staffing-plan/index.html, archived on January 7, 2026, at
https://perma.cc/Y9W3-UBCF), and the FY2026 ED contingency plan dated September 28, 2025 (https://www.ed.gov/
media/document/us-department-of-education-contingency-plan-lapse-fiscal-year-fy-2026-appropriations-508112431.pdf, archived on January 7, 2026, at https://perma.cc/4PS9-ZQDA). Some of these plans appear to have been
revised and reissued during the course of the shutdown. For example, see the FY2026 DOL plan dated October 31,
2025 (https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/general/plans/dol-contingency-plan.pdf, archived on January 7, 2026, at
https://perma.cc/XG78-FB72).
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voted not to invoke cloture on various motions related to proceeding to the measure on several
occasions over the next several weeks,9 until it voted to invoke cloture on November 9 (60-40).
The Senate subsequently passed the measure with an amendment on November 10 (60-40). The
House agreed to the Senate amendment on November 12 (222-209), and the measure was signed
into law by the President later that same day.
In general, the FY2026 CR funded discretionary programs at the same rate, and under the same
conditions, as in FY2025. Appropriated entitlements were funded at their current law levels.10
The CR also included one provision that was specific to LHHS accounts or related activities
(§155 on the Head Start program).11
When annual appropriations for LHHS were not yet enacted at the time the CR expired, a second
funding lapse commenced, ending with the enactment of full-year appropriations on February 3.
Prior Congressional Action on an FY2026 LHHS Bill
FY2026 LHHS Action in the House (H.R. 5304)
On September 9, 2025, the House Appropriations Committee voted to report its version of the
FY2026 LHHS bill (35-28). The measure was subsequently reported on September 11, 2025, as
H.R. 5304 (H.Rept. 119-271).
The House committee bill would have provided $202.2 billion in discretionary LHHS funds, a
10.9% decrease from FY2024 enacted levels and a 10.3% decrease from FY2025. This amount
was 16.1% more than the FY2024 President’s request. In addition, the House floor bill would
have provided an estimated $1.513 trillion in mandatory funding, for a combined total of $1.715
trillion for LHHS as a whole.
FY2026 LHHS Action in the Senate (S. 2624)
On July 31, 2025, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to report its version of the FY2026
LHHS bill (26-3). The measure was subsequently reported that same day as S. 2587 (S.Rept. 11955).
The Senate committee bill would have provided $226.4 billion in discretionary LHHS funds, a
0.2% decrease from FY2024 enacted levels and 0.5% more than FY2025. This amount was
30.1% more than the FY2026 President’s request. In addition, the Senate committee bill would
have provided an estimated $1.513 trillion in mandatory funding, for a combined total of $1.740
trillion for LHHS as a whole.
9 See the Senate actions on H.R. 5371 in Congress.gov on September 19 and 30; October 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 20,
22, and 28; and November 4.
10 For an estimate of the discretionary appropriations contained in Division A of H.R. 9747, see CBO, “Senate
Amendment 3937 to H.R. 5371, the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction
and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026,” November 10, 2025, https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2025-11/
SA3937-HR5371-DivA-G.pdf.
11 The LHHS-specific provision in the CR is discussed in CRS Report R48765, Overview of Continuing Appropriations
for FY2026 (Division A of P.L. 119-37).
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FY2026 President’s Budget Request
On May 2, President Trump submitted to Congress an outline of his discretionary funding
priorities for FY2026. Additional documents related to the budget request were submitted in the
weeks that followed, including congressional justifications for individual departments and
agencies. The FY2026 budget submission occurred during a presidential transition year—from
the presidency of Joseph R. Biden to Donald J. Trump on January 20, 2025. Although the
statutory deadline for the budget submission to Congress is not later than the first Monday in
February (P.L. 67-13, as amended), recent Presidents have not submitted detailed budget
proposals until April or May of their first year in office (although they usually advise Congress
regarding the general contours of their economic and budgetary policies in special messages
submitted to Congress prior to that submission). This delay allows time to prepare a proposal that
reflects the priorities of the new Administration.12
The President requested $174.1 billion in discretionary funding for accounts funded by the LHHS
bill (23.3% less than FY2024 enacted and 22.8% less than FY2025). In addition, the President
requested $1.513 trillion in annually appropriated mandatory funding, for a combined total of
$1.687 trillion for LHHS as a whole.
Conclusion of FY2025 Appropriations Process
Full-year FY2025 appropriations for LHHS were enacted on March 15, 2025, when the Full-Year
Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (H.R. 1968; P.L. 119-4; hereinafter,
“FY2025 full-year CR”) was signed into law by the President. H.R. 1968 was introduced by
Representative Tom Cole, the House Appropriations Committee Chairman, on March 10, 2025.
The measure was approved by the House on March 11 (217–213), and the Senate on March 14
(54-46).
Annual discretionary LHHS appropriations in the FY2025 full-year CR were estimated in later
congressional source documents for this report to total $225.4 billion. This amount was 0.7% less
than FY2024 enacted and 29.5% more than the FY2026 President’s budget request. The omnibus
also provided $1.225 trillion in mandatory funding, for a combined LHHS total of $1.481 trillion.
(Note that these totals are based only on amounts of non-emergency appropriations and do not
include emergency-designated or supplemental funds, which were provided in addition to the
annual appropriations.)
Overarching LHHS Considerations for the FY2026
Appropriations Cycle
A number of circumstances affected the FY2026 cycle, such as lack of publicly available data on
final FY2025 funding levels for certain accounts and programs, the level of detail in and structure
of the FY2026 President’s budget submission, and the cancellations of previously enacted LHHS
funding in a rescissions bill. This section provides background related to these issues. It
concludes by summarizing how the FY2026 omnibus addressed some of them and highlights
some new provisions that were included related to staffing, grants management, and oversight
12 For more information, see CRS Insight IN11655, Budget Submission After a Presidential Transition: Contextualizing
the Biden Administration’s FY2022 Request.
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practices by LHHS agencies. (A discussion of FY2026 budget enforcement issues relevant to
LHHS is in the Appendix).
Determining FY2025 Funding Levels for Certain Accounts and
Programs
As summarized above, FY2025 appropriations for LHHS were enacted in the form of full-year
continuing appropriations. Full-year CRs generally fund discretionary programs at the same level
and under the same conditions as the prior fiscal year, and fund annually appropriated
entitlements at their current-law levels. This general funding structure may be subject to certain
enumerated exceptions that apply to specified purposes (“anomalies”).13 In addition, accounts
with appropriations in indefinite amounts, or that have offsets such as fees and rescissions, may
also have different calculated funding levels than the prior year. Consequently, FY2025 funding
for certain accounts did not uniformly match comparable funding provided in the FY2024 LHHS
appropriations act.
In addition, funding enacted in a full-year CR is usually not accompanied by an explanatory
statement, even when earlier versions of LHHS annual appropriations bills for that fiscal year
were accompanied by committee reports. In the case of FY2025, there was earlier report language
accompanying the FY2025 congressional LHHS proposals, but no final explanatory statement
was provided.14 This meant that Congress’s most specific requirements for the allocation of
FY2025 funding appeared in the full CR itself, with no funding allocations or directives at greater
levels of specificity than the statute (e.g., the program, project, or activity level when not
specified in statute).15
For much of the FY2026 appropriations cycle, public sources of information about the funding
distributions made by LHHS agencies subsequent to the FY2025 full-year CR’s enactment were
incomplete or inconsistently available. The operating plans required by Section 1113 of the CR,
which were to report the amount of funding by program, project, or activity (or greater level of
detail if applicable) for ED, HHS, DOL, SSA, the Corporation for National and Community
Service (CNCS), and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), were due to the House and
Senate Appropriations Committees on May 15, 2025. Of these, DOL and SSA publicly released
their operating plans, but those for HHS, ED, CNCS, and CPB generally were not posted on
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) or agency websites until many months after the start
of FY2026.16 In addition, the FY2025 column in the FY2026 congressional justifications, which
13 Anomalies are provisions that provide an exception to the general purposes, amounts, and timing of funds in the CR.
The LHHS anomalies are summarized in the Appendix to CRS Report R48598, Overview of FY2025 Departments of
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations.
14 Committee reports for earlier FY2025 LHHS proposals were H.Rept. 118-585 and S.Rept. 118-207.
15 For a more detailed discussion of how the FY2025 full-year CR differed from regular annual appropriations, and
related issues, see the section, “FY2025 Funding Levels for LHHS Accounts, Programs, and Activities,” in CRS Report
R48598, Overview of FY2025 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related
Agencies Appropriations.
16 See DOL, FY2025 Operating Plan All Purpose Table, https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/general/budget/2025/
FY-2025-Operating-Plan-APT.pdf; and SSA, FY2025 Operating Plan, https://www.ssa.gov/budget/assets/materials/
2025/2025OP.pdf (accessed July 2, 2025). Subsequent to the enactment of the FY2026 LHHS omnibus, individual
FY2026 operating plans for many HHS operating divisions were posted on the HHS website, which included columns
for final FY2025 funding (see, for example, the Health Resources and Services Administration Operating Plan for
FY2026, https://www.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/hrsa/about/budget/fy2026-hrsa-operating-plan.pdf). ED also posted its
funding tables for the FY2027 President’s budget request, which included a “FY2025 Final Operating Plan” column
(https://www.ed.gov/media/document/fy-2027-presidents-budget-113611.pdf). In addition, some operating plans have
(continued...)
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usually would list amounts at the program, project, and activity level, did not provide this level of
detail for much of HHS and ED; or in some cases, it aligned the account structure with
administration proposals and not enacted funding.17 This made it difficult to compare amounts
across fiscal or budget years using publicly available sources.
During the FY2026 appropriations cycle, the only comprehensive congressional source of
FY2025 LHHS funding for lines within appropriations accounts was the “Comparative Statement
of New Budget Authority” table in the House Appropriations Committee report accompanying its
version of the FY2026 LHHS bill (H.Rept. 119-271). According to page 315 of that report, the
sources of information for the “FY2025 Estimate” column were “FY2025 Operating Plans and
other available information.” Though the table generally listed amounts for each LHHS account,
funding amounts for numerous programs and lines at the sub-account level were not listed.
For this reason, because this CRS report uses the House Appropriations Committee table as its
source for FY2026, the FY2025 table headings in the report indicate that they are “estimates.”
FY2026 President’s Budget Submission Level of Detail and
Structure
The submission of the President’s budget request formally initiates the congressional budget
process and informs Congress of the President’s recommended spending levels for agencies and
programs relative to prior-year funding.18 Typically, many of the proposals in the President’s
annual budget recommend changes to laws that govern mandatory spending levels or policies,
which are usually established on a multiyear or permanent basis. However, discretionary
spending, which is roughly one-third of the federal budget,19 is decided and controlled each fiscal
year through the annual appropriations process. While Congress is not required to adopt the
President’s proposals or recommendations for either discretionary or mandatory spending, the
budget submission is an important source of information for the annual appropriations process on
the funding allocations that are envisioned by the Administration for accounts, programs,
projects, and activities.
On May 2, 2025, President Trump submitted to Congress an outline of his discretionary funding
priorities for FY2026.20 This preliminary document provided early highlights of proposed
increases and decreases to numerous programs and entities, including several funded in the LHHS
bill. Additional documents related to the budget request were submitted in the weeks that
followed, including selected “supplemental materials” (e.g., the Appendix volume of the budget
been posted by OMB on the following webpage under the link to “spend plans,” https://apportionmentpublic.max.gov/.
17 For HHS, see, for example, the All Purpose Table in the Administration for Children, Families, and Communities,
FY2026 Congressional Justification, pp. 3-9, https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fy-2026-acfc-cj.pdf. See also the
tables throughout ED, Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Summary, https://www.ed.gov/media/document/fiscal-year-2026budget-summary-110043.pdf (accessed on July 2, 2025). Subsequent to the enactment of the FY2026 LHHS omnibus,
the congressional justifications accompanying the FY2027 President’s budget request were released. These typically
provided a more detailed account of FY2025 “final” funding distributions relative to the FY2026 congressional
justifications.
18 For more information, see CRS Report R47019, The Executive Budget Process: An Overview.
19 Congressional Budget Office (CBO), The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2025 to 2035, p. 20, https://www.cbo.gov/
system/files/2025-01/60870-Outlook-2025.pdf.
20 OMB, Fiscal Year 2026 Discretionary Budget Request, May 2, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/
uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf.
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submission) and congressional justifications for individual departments and agencies.21 These
documents, however, lacked much of the detail and information typically included in the
President’s budget. As noted in the section above, the FY2025 column in the congressional
justifications, which would usually list amounts at the program, project, and activity levels, did
not provide this level of detail for much of HHS and ED. The budget submission also often did
not include mandatory spending budget proposals.
An additional challenge for understanding the President’s budget request was that some of the
accompanying congressional justifications for LHHS agencies aligned their account structure
with administration proposals to reorganize relevant departments, and not with the account
structure used when FY2025 funding was enacted.22 For example, the Administration proposed
the creation of a new entity, the Administration for a Health America (AHA) within HHS, which
was to combine the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA), and other HHS programs. In addition, instead of
individual congressional justifications for HRSA and SAMHSA, the administration submitted a
congressional justification for the proposed AHA. Not all HRSA and SAMHSA programs (either
as currently constituted or under the proposed restructure) were included in the AHA budget
justification. Moreover, these programs were organized within a proposed agency structure that
did not align with the existing HRSA or SAMHSA accounts and offices. This complicated
comparing the programs in the reorganization proposal to either prior-year funding levels or the
existing HRSA and SAMHSA structure. (For a more detailed discussion of this issue and the
proposed HHS reorganization, see the “Proposed FY2026 HHS Reorganization” section of this
report.)
For entities that the FY2026 President’s budget proposed be restructured, limited information was
publicly available during the FY2026 appropriations cycle about how this proposal compared to
both the current structure and prior-year funding. The House Appropriations Committee’s
“Comparative Statement of New Budget Authority” table in its report accompanying its version
of the FY2026 LHHS bill (H.Rept. 119-271) generally presented accounts and programs within
their FY2025 enacted structure. Thus, page 315 of that committee report cautioned, “Some
funding amounts displayed under the ‘FY 2026 Request’ column are displayed in accordance with
the programs and accounts under current law and may not be directly comparable to the display in
the FY 2026 budget request submitted by the Office and Management and Budget.”
Because this CRS report uses the House Appropriations Committee table as its source for the
FY2026 President’s request numbers, they generally reflect these accounts and programs within
their current structure.
Impoundment Control Act Enacted FY2026 and FY2027 Rescissions
to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)
Enacted funding can be cancelled by a subsequent provision of law that is commonly referred to
as a rescission. Rescissions of previously enacted funds are routinely considered and enacted in
regular annual appropriations acts, and may offset the cost of new funding provided in that same
act. In addition, the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA; P.L. 93-344) provides a mechanism
21 See additional materials at https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/information-resources/budget/. Congressional budget
justifications generally are posted on individual agency websites.
22 For HHS, see, for example, the All Purpose Table in the Administration for Children, Families, and Communities,
FY2026 Congressional Justification, pp. 3-9, https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fy-2026-acfc-cj.pdf. See also the
tables throughout ED, Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Summary, https://www.ed.gov/media/document/fiscal-year-2026budget-summary-110043.pdf (accessed July 2, 2025).
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for the President to submit a special message to Congress that proposes a rescission. The ICA also
provides special procedures for Congress to consider a rescission bill. For further information, see
CRS Report R48432, The Impoundment Control Act of 1974: Background and Congressional
Consideration of Rescissions.
A rescission bill was enacted into law on July 24, 2025 (P.L. 119-28). This bill originated as an
ICA special message to rescind $9.4 billion in previously enacted funds, including $1.1 billion in
FY2026 and FY2027 LHHS advance appropriations for CPB.23 As advance appropriations for
CPB have historically been enacted two years in advance, these funds had been enacted in the
FY2024 LHHS omnibus (P.L. 118-47) (for funds available in FY2026) and the FY2025 full-year
CR (for funds available in FY2027). The bill did not propose that any CBP funds available for
FY2025 be rescinded, which were provided in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (P.L.
117-328). The proposed rescissions were introduced as H.R. 4, and passed the House on June 12
(214-212). The Senate amended and passed H.R. 4 on July 17 (51-48); the House agreed to the
Senate amendment on July 18.24 (Further background on CPB appropriations-related issues is in
the “Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)” section of this report. See also Table 11 for how
these funds were treated in the various proposals and FY2026 LHHS omnibus).
As of the cover date of this report, Congress has not considered any further rescission bills that
would affect LHHS appropriations.
Selected Appropriations and Related Issues Addressed by the
FY2026 LHHS Omnibus
Ultimately, the FY2026 LHHS omnibus preserved the status quo relative to previous years in
terms of the entities and accounts that the law funds. In other words, the law appropriated funding
to LHHS entities under their existing structure and generally not within the structure that was
proposed in the President’s budget.
In addition, the statutory appropriations text for several LHHS accounts in the HHS, ED, and
Related Agencies titles of the law includes new provisions that incorporate by reference funding
distributions for entities and programs that appear in the act’s accompanying explanatory
statement. In general, such distributions previously had been made in the explanatory statement
alone. (See the explanation of this issue in the “Report Language and Incorporation by
Reference” section of this CRS report. Examples of this are noted throughout the remainder of the
report.)
Over the course of FY2025, a number of reports circulated about delays in the availability of
funding or changes to staffing, grants management, or oversight practices at LHHS agencies. The
FY2026 LHHS omnibus included a number of provisions related to these topics. For instance, see
the following:
•
In FY2025, ED departed from its long-standing practice of making forward
funding for certain federal education formula grant funds available to state
grantees for obligation and expenditure on July 1, 2025 (their first day of
23 Office of Management and Budget, Proposed Rescissions of Budgetary Resources, May 28, 2025,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Proposed-Rescissions-of-Budgetary-Resources.pdf (accessed
July 2, 2025).
24
House approval of the amendment occurred pursuant to H.Res. 590, which was adopted by the House (216-213) on
July 18, 2025.
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•
•
•
availability).25 The FY2026 LHHS omnibus included a new general provision
(§312) requiring the Secretary of Education to award formula grant funding for
specified programs “on the date such funds become available for obligation.”
(For further discussion, see the “Forward Funding for Formula Grant Programs”
section of this report.)
In FY2025, NIH shifted to funding more awards under a multiyear approach that
fully funded those grants up front for all years of the project period. Compared to
FY2024, NIH awarded fewer individual research grants in FY2025 (despite a
similar overall funding level to FY2024).26 The FY2026 LHHS omnibus included
a new provision (§240) limiting the total amount of FY2026 NIH funds that can
be obligated for multiyear awards to not more than the same amount of funds as
in FY2025. (For further discussion, see the “Grants Policy Changes” section of
this report.)
In FY2025, reports suggested there had been delays in awarding funds, as well as
terminations for some existing grants at some LHHS agencies.27 The FY2026
LHHS omnibus included new language in a long-standing general provision
(§524) about grant notifications to Congress. The revised language requires
notifications for “any new or non-competing continuation grant” as well as
notifications of the “termination or non-continuation of any grant, including a
short description of the reason for the termination or non-continuation.”
In FY2025, reports indicated that several LHHS agencies had initiated substantial
staffing reductions. For instance, in March 2025 ED announced the department
had “initiated a reduction in force (RIF) impacting nearly 50% of the
Department’s workforce.”28 That same month, HHS announced there would be a
“dramatic restructuring” at HHS, including a reduction in the workforce of about
10,000 full-time employees.29 Reportedly, developments related to these
reductions, including some reported reinstatements, have been ongoing since that
time.30 The FY2026 LHHS omnibus included several new provisions related to
federal staffing levels. For instance, the omnibus included provisions requiring
agencies to use appropriations to support the staffing levels necessary to fulfill
“statutory responsibilities including carrying out programs, projects, and
25 For example, see Linda Jacobson, “Education Dept. Lifts Freeze on Remaining Federal Funds,” The 74, July 25,
2025, https://www.the74million.org/article/education-dept-lifts-freeze-on-remaining-federal-funds/; Juan Perez Jr.,
“Trump administration moves to release billions in federal cash,” Politico, July 25, 2025, https://www.politico.com/
news/2025/07/25/trump-administration-moves-to-release-billions-in-federal-education-cash-00477213; and Office of
the Attorney General, Connecticut, “State Of Connecticut Secures Major Win as U.S. Education Department Restores
Previously Withheld Funding,” press release, August 5, 2025, https://portal.ct.gov/ag/press-releases/2025-pressreleases/connecticut-secures-major-win-as-us-education-department-restores-previously-withheld-funding.
26 For more information, see CRS In Focus IF13131, NIH Grants Policy Under the Second Trump Administration.
27
For a broad discussion of the issue, including pending litigation over certain terminations, see CRS Legal Sidebar
LSB11407, Litigation Over the Trump Administration’s Grant Terminations.
28 ED, “U.S. Department of Education Initiates Reduction in Force,” press release, March 11, 2025,
https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-initiates-reduction-force.
29 HHS, “HHS Announces Transformation to Make America Healthy Again,” press release, March 27, 2025,
https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-restructuring-doge.html.
30 See, for example, “Education Department Hiring More Civil Rights Attorneys After Walking Back Hundreds of
Layoffs,” April 28, 2026, https://federalnewsnetwork.com/hiring-retention/2026/04/education-department-hiring-morecivil-rights-attorneys-after-walking-back-hundreds-of-layoffs/; and Federal News Network, “HHS Sends RIF Notices
to Dozens of Staff it Missed During Office-Wide Layoffs Last Year,” May 18, 2026, https://federalnewsnetwork.com/
workforce/2026/05/hhs-sends-rif-notices-to-dozens-of-staff-it-missed-during-office-wide-layoffs-last-year/.
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activities” funded in the bill (e.g., Departmental Management or Operating
Expenses accounts at DOL, ED, and CNCS, and Section 239 of the HHS general
provisions). In addition, the omnibus included a new provision requiring HHS to
report to the Appropriations Committees on certain staffing levels (e.g., §228).
This section details the methodology that CRS used to calculate the dollars and percentages used
in this report that are detailed in the section, provides background on the status of report language
and the enactment of that language by reference via language in the bill, and summarizes total
LHHS appropriations by bill title (e.g., DOL, HHS).
Calculation and Display of Funding, and Treatment
of Congressional Report Language
This section provides an overview of how CRS calculates the dollars and percentages displayed
in this report. It also provides an explanation of appropriations report language and how it may be
incorporated by reference as a statutory requirement.
Dollars and Percentages in this Report
Amounts displayed in this report are typically rounded (e.g., to the nearest million, to the nearest
billion), as labeled. Dollar and percentage changes discussed in the text are based on unrounded
amounts. Unless otherwise specified, appropriations levels displayed in this report refer to the
total amount of non-emergency budget authority provided in an appropriations bill (i.e., “total in
the bill”), regardless of the year in which the funding becomes available. These totals include,
where applicable, full-year non-emergency appropriations provided in continuing resolutions.
Unless otherwise noted, the funding amounts in this report are as follows:
•
•
•
•
FY2024 enacted is generally drawn from or calculated based on the explanatory
statement accompanying the FY2024 LHHS omnibus (P.L. 118-47) available in
the Congressional Record, vol. 170, no. 51, book II, March 22, 2024, pp. H1886H2070. Some limited exceptions to how funds are displayed (e.g., the FY2024
rescissions to the CNCS National Service Trust) are noted where applicable.
FY2025 estimate, FY2026 request, and FY2026 House committee are generally
drawn from or calculated based on data contained in the House Appropriations
Committee report accompanying H.R. 5304 (H.Rept. 119-271). (See the
explanation of the FY2025 estimate and FY2026 request columns for additional
caveats in the “Overarching LHHS Considerations for the FY2026
Appropriations Cycle” section of this CRS report).
FY2026 Senate committee is generally drawn from or calculated based on data
contained in the Senate Appropriations Committee report accompanying S. 2587
(S.Rept. 119-55).
FY2026 enacted is generally drawn from or calculated based on data contained in
the explanatory statement accompanying the FY2026 LHHS omnibus (P.L. 11975) available in the Congressional Record, vol. 172, no. 15, book II, January 22,
2026, pp. H1590-H1660.
Emergency-designated LHHS appropriations are generally not included in funding amounts in
this report (“Total BA in the Bill”). Such LHHS funds were enacted for FY2024 and FY2025, but
were not included in FY2026 enacted or any of the FY2026 proposals. For informational
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purposes, FY2024 and FY2025 emergency-designated amounts are displayed separately at the
bottom of tables throughout the report and not summed in that separate display. Those amounts
are based on CRS analysis of the texts of the laws. There are two notable exceptions to this
general rule:
•
•
Funding in the “Selected HHS Highlights by Agency” section includes, as noted,
certain FY2024 emergency-designated funds that effectively could be used to
support regular program operations (i.e., the appropriations law did not limit use
of funds to activities associated with a particular disaster or event, such as needs
arising from a hurricane). Likewise, Table 6 and Table 7 also break out this
emergency funding for regular program operations for relevant HHS operating
divisions, accounts, and budget lines. All FY2024 and FY2025 emergencydesignated funding (for both regular program operations and specified
emergencies) also is included at the bottom of these HHS tables.
Funding in the Appendix includes all FY2024 and FY2025 emergencydesignated funds in the “Adjusted Appropriations” totals, as scored by CBO.
Post-enactment adjustments, such as mandatory spending sequestration (where applicable) or
transfers and reprogramming of funds pursuant to executive authorities, are generally not
included in this report except as noted.31 CRS calculations do, however, include LHHS funding
provided to HHS pursuant to the 21st Century Cures Act (P.L. 114-255), as amended.
Report Language and Incorporation by Reference
In general, the detail tables in this CRS report for the DOL, HHS, ED, and RA titles generally do
not distinguish between funding that is provided through bill or statutory text versus funding
allocations and directives that are included in accompanying congressional “report language”
(and not incorporated by reference). That distinction is made in the discussion of selected issues
for each LHHS title that surrounds those tables.
Report language is used by Congress to further specify funding or to communicate a range of
directives to the agency. It typically does not have the legal weight of statutory text unless
incorporated by reference (discussed in the next paragraph). Each regular appropriations bill
reported from committee is usually accompanied by a written committee report, and the final
explanatory text may be used to reconcile any differences between those reports.32 For example,
earlier report language may address certain issues in ways that are difficult to reconcile
harmoniously with the final enacted text. In these instances, the explanatory text normally seeks
31 The general practice for CRS reports on the LHHS bill has been to reflect conventions used in source materials.
These conventions have varied over the years. For instance, CRS reports on LHHS appropriations for FY2012-FY2015
generally relied on source materials that adjusted appropriations amounts in the prior-year column to reflect
sequestration, re-estimates of mandatory spending, transfers, reprogramming, and other adjustments for comparability.
However, the FY2016 version of this report broke from that practice due to differing display conventions in source
documents, and did not reflect any such adjustments (except sequestration for the Prevention and Public Health Fund
[PPHF]). The FY2017 version of this report differed from both of these prior practices, in that it reflected a smaller
subset of transfers (generally concentrated at the National Institutes of Health) and other adjustments for comparability
(e.g., program moves from one account to another), but not reprogramming of funds or mandatory sequestration
(except sequestration of the PPHF). Since FY2018, each version of this report has relied on source materials that
generally did not reflect any transfers or other budgetary adjustments pursuant to administrative authorities except
PPHF sequestration. Due to the lack of an explanatory statement in FY2025, it is more difficult to assess the extent to
which transfers or reprogrammings are represented in the estimates included in the CRS report for that year.
32 Final congressional explanatory text may be a formal joint explanatory statement accompanying a conference report.
When disagreement between the chambers is resolved informally, the explanatory text that explains the agreement is
usually entered into the Congressional Record or published as a committee print.
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to clarify how the affected agency is to proceed. On the other hand, if the original committee
language is ultimately acceptable to congressional negotiators, the explanatory statement might
be silent due to an expectation that the agency will follow the original directive.33 In addition,
language in the explanatory statement usually directs compliance with the directives in earlier
committee reports unless they are explicitly contravened.34
Report language may be incorporated by reference into the statutory text through provisions in
that text (referred to in this report as “incorporation by reference”). In other words, the statutory
text refers to report language that further allocates funds and the statute’s reference to the report
language makes clear Congress’s intent to make the report allocations effective as statutory
requirements.35 For LHHS in recent decades, provisions incorporating report language funding
allocations by reference has been typical for Congressional Directed Spending (CDS)/Community
Project Funding (CPF) projects (see the “FY2026 LHHS Congressionally Directed Spending
(CDS) and Community Project Funding” section) and for the Prevention and Public Health Fund
(PPHF) at HHS (see the “Prevention and Public Health Fund” section), but rare for other types of
programs, projects, and activities. However, the FY2026 LHHS omnibus included such language
for multiple accounts and headings in the HHS, ED, and RA titles of the bill. (See an example of
such language, for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the text box below,
as well as other examples noted throughout the remainder of the report [e.g., the “Selected HHS
Highlights by Agency” section]). When this CRS report discusses selected issues for each of the
LHHS titles, it treats language that was incorporated by reference as a statutory requirement.
Example of LHHS Report Language Incorporated by Reference
The FY2026 LHHS omnibus appropriated funds under the following heading for the CDC:
Section 236 of the FY2026 LHHS omnibus incorporated funding provided in explanatory statement tables under
most CDC headings by reference. Specifically, for the heading above, that provision directed that funding
provided under the ‘‘Birth Defects, Developmental Disabilities, Disabilities and Health’’ heading in the statutory
text of the FY2026 LHHS omnibus “shall be for the budget activities, and in the amounts specified in the table
under each such heading in the explanatory statement described in section 4 (in the matter preceding division A
of this consolidated Act).” The intent of language such as that contained in Section 236 is to incorporate by
reference into the statutory text those purpose and amount allocations, which appear in report language. Those
allocations in the explanatory statement were as follows:
33 For further information, see CRS Report R44124, Appropriations Report Language: Overview of Development and
Components.
34 For example, the explanatory statement accompanying the FY2026 LHHS omnibus stated “The explanatory
statement accompanying this division is approved and indicates Congressional intent. Unless otherwise noted, the
language set forth in House Report 119– 271 and Senate Report 119–55 carry the same weight as language included in
this explanatory statement and should be complied with unless specifically addressed to the contrary in this explanatory
statement. While some language is repeated for emphasis, it is not intended to negate the language referred to above
unless expressly provided herein (Congressional Record, vol. 170, no. 51, book II, March 22, 2024, pp. H1590).”
35 For a detailed discussion of this issue, see CRS Report R46899, Regular Appropriations Acts: Selected Statutory
Interpretation Issues.
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Source: P.L. 119-75 and Congressional Record, vol. 170, no. 51, book II, March 22, 2024, pp. H1592.
LHHS Funding by Bill Title (FY2024-FY2026)
Table 2 displays discretionary and mandatory funding by LHHS bill title for FY2024 enacted,
FY2025 estimated, various FY2026 proposals, and FY2026 enacted. The amounts shown in the
table reflect total budget authority provided in the annual LHHS bill (i.e., all funds appropriated
in the 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.) Note that the totals in this table do not include emergencydesignated appropriations; those amounts are displayed separately at the bottom of the table and
are in addition to regular appropriations.
Table 2. LHHS Appropriations Overview by Bill Title, FY2024-FY2026
(total budget authority provided in the bill, in billions of dollars)
Bill Title
FY2024
Enact.
Title I: Labor
FY2025
Est.
FY2026
Req.
FY2026
House
Cmte.
(H.R.
5304)
FY2026
Senate
Cmte.
(S. 2587)
FY2026
Enact.
15.0
14.9
11.0
11.5
15.6
15.6
Discretionary
13.7
13.6
9.0
9.6
13.7
13.7
Mandatory
1.3
1.3
1.9
1.9
1.9
1.9
Title II: HHS
1,266.5
1,301.7
1,522.5
1,547.9
1,555.1
1,554.9
117.4
116.1
84.0
109.5
116.6
116.4
1,149.1
1,185.6
1,438.5
1,438.5
1,438.5
1,438.5
Title III: Education
83.3
83.2
71.2
71.4
83.5
83.5
Discretionary
79.1
78.8
66.7
66.9
79.0
79.0
Mandatory
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.5
4.5
4.5
Title IV: RA
79.3
80.7
82.6
84.6
85.5
85.4
Discretionarya
Mandatory
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Bill Title
FY2024
Enact.
FY2025
Est.
FY2026
Req.
FY2026
House
Cmte.
(H.R.
5304)
FY2026
Senate
Cmte.
(S. 2587)
FY2026
Enact.
Discretionaryb
16.8
16.9
14.3
16.3
17.1
17.1
Mandatory
62.5
63.8
68.3
68.3
68.3
68.3
Total BA in the
Bill
1,444.1
1,480.5
1,687.3
1,715.4
1,739.7
1,739.4
Discretionary
227.0
225.4
174.1
202.2
226.4
226.1
Mandatory
1,217.1
1,255.1
1,513.2
1,513.2
1,513.2
1,513.2
P.L. 118-50
0.5
—
—
—
—
—
P.L. 118-158
—
0.5
—
—
—
—
Advances for
Future Years
(provided in
current bill)d
297.0
313.3
370.0
370.0
370.0
370.0
Advances from
Prior Years
(for use in
current year)d
242.8
297.0
313.3
312.7
312.7
312.7
Additional
Scorekeeping
Adjustmentse
-29.7
-24.6
-10.0
-14.7
-26.3
-27.9
Emergency Funding
(not in above totals or
memoranda below)c
Memoranda:
Source: Amounts in this table for the “FY2024 Enact.” column are generally drawn from or calculated based on
data contained in the explanatory statement accompanying the FY2024 LHHS omnibus (P.L. 118-47) available in
the Congressional Record, vol. 170, no. 51, book II, March 22, 2024, pp. H1886-H2070. Amounts in this table for
the “FY2025 Est.,” “FY2026 Req.,” and “FY2026 House Cmte.” columns are generally drawn from or calculated
based on data contained in the House Appropriations Committee report accompanying H.R. 5304 (H.Rept. 119271). Amounts in this table for the “FY2026 Senate Cmte.” column are generally drawn from or calculated based
on data contained in the Senate Appropriations Committee report accompanying S. 2587 (S.Rept. 119-55).
Amounts in this table for the “FY2026 Enact.” column are generally drawn from or calculated based on data
contained in the explanatory statement accompanying the FY2026 LHHS omnibus (P.L. 119-75 ) available in the
Congressional Record, vol. 172, no. 15, book II, January 22, 2026, pp. H1590-H1660. Totals (“Total BA in the Bill”)
do not include emergency-designated, contingent, or indefinite discretionary appropriations. CRS calculations do,
however, include LHHS funding provided to HHS pursuant to the 21st Century Cures Act (P.L. 114-255), as
amended. For consistency with source materials, amounts in this table generally do not reflect mandatory
spending sequestration, where applicable, nor do they reflect any transfers or reprogramming of funds pursuant
to executive authorities. Note that amounts shown for additional scorekeeping adjustments are calculated using
the source documents specified. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is responsible for the official scoring of
the bill.
Notes: BA = Budget Authority. Details may not add to totals due to rounding. Amounts in this table (1) reflect
all BA appropriated in the bill, regardless of the year in which funds become available (i.e., totals do not include
advances from prior-year appropriations, but do include advances for subsequent years provided in this bill); (2)
have generally not been adjusted to reflect scorekeeping; (3) comprise only those funds provided (or requested)
for agencies and accounts subject to the jurisdiction of the LHHS subcommittees of the House and Senate
appropriations committees; and (4) do not include appropriations that occur outside of appropriations bills. No
amounts are shown for Title V because this title consists solely of general provisions.
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a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
For the sake of comparability, all columns in this table treat the general provision relating to the transfer of
funds for Medicare program operations costs (e.g., §227 in the FY2026 LHHS omnibus) as a scorekeeping
adjustment. CRS Report R47936, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2024 Appropriations,
attributed that provision to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Program Management
account.
All columns in this table include applicable rescissions to the CNCS National Service Trust in the
discretionary and total amounts. In contrast, the explanatory statement accompanying the FY2024 LHHS
omnibus and CRS Report R47936, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2024 Appropriations, do
not include such rescissions in the aforementioned amounts but instead attributed them to scorekeeping
adjustments.
The FY2024 LHHS omnibus, FY2025 full-year CR, FY2026 House committee bill, FY2026 Senate committee
bill, and FY2026 LHHS omnibus included a contingent appropriation for the HHS Refugee and Entrant
Assistance account. (Such funds were not requested by the FY2026 President’s budget.) The contingent
funds become available only if certain conditions are met. Consistent with source materials, the estimated
amount of the contingent appropriations is treated as a scorekeeping adjustment and is thus not included in
this total.
Totals in this table are based on budget authority provided in the bill (i.e., they exclude advance
appropriations from prior bills and include advance appropriations from this bill made available in future
years). The calculation for total budget authority available in a given fiscal year is as follows: Total BA in the
Bill, minus Advances for Future Years, plus Advances from Prior Years.
Totals in this table have generally not been adjusted for scorekeeping. (To adjust for scorekeeping, add this
line to the total budget authority.)
Figure 2 displays discretionary and mandatory LHHS funding levels enacted in the FY2026
LHHS omnibus, by bill title. (While the percentages discussed in this section were calculated
based on FY2026 enacted, they are generally also illustrative—within several percentage
points—of the share of funds directed to each bill title in FY2024 and FY2025, and under the
FY2026 proposals.)
As this figure demonstrates, HHS accounts for the largest share of total FY2026 LHHS
appropriations: $1.555 trillion, or 89.4%. This is due to the large amount of mandatory funding
included in the HHS appropriation, the majority of which is for Medicaid grants to states and
payments to health care trust funds. After HHS, RA and ED represent the next-largest shares of
total LHHS funding, accounting for 4.9% and 4.8%, respectively. (The majority of the ED
appropriations each year are discretionary, while the bulk of funding for RA goes toward
mandatory payments and administrative costs of the Supplemental Security Income program at
the Social Security Administration.) DOL accounts for the smallest share of total LHHS funds,
0.9%.
The overall composition of LHHS funding is noticeably different when comparing only
discretionary appropriations. HHS accounts for a comparatively smaller share of total
discretionary appropriations (51.5%), while ED accounts for a relatively larger share (34.9%).
Together, these two departments represent the majority (86.4%) of discretionary LHHS
appropriations. RA and DOL account for the remaining discretionary funds, at 7.6% and 6.0%,
respectively.
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Figure 2. FY2026 Enacted LHHS Appropriations by Title
(non-emergency budget authority in billions of dollars unless otherwise indicated)
Source: Amounts in this figure are generally drawn from or calculated based on data contained in the
explanatory statement accompanying the FY2026 LHHS omnibus (P.L. 119-75 ) available in the Congressional
Record, vol. 172, no. 15, book II, January 22, 2026, pp. H1590-H1660. Enacted totals for FY2026 do not include
contingent or indefinite discretionary appropriations. For consistency with source materials, amounts in this
figure generally do not reflect mandatory spending sequestration, where applicable, nor do they reflect any
transfers or reprogramming of funds pursuant to executive authorities. CRS calculations do, however, include
LHHS funding provided to HHS pursuant to the 21st Century Cures Act (P.L. 114-255), as amended.
Notes: Details may not add to totals due to rounding. Amounts in this figure (1) reflect all BA appropriated in
the bill, regardless of the year in which funds become available (i.e., totals do not include advances from prioryear appropriations, but do include advances for subsequent years provided in this bill); (2) have generally not
been adjusted to reflect scorekeeping; (3) comprise only those funds provided for agencies and accounts subject
to the jurisdiction of the LHHS subcommittees of the House and Senate appropriations committees; and (4) do
not include appropriations that occur outside of appropriations bills.
FY2026 LHHS Congressionally Directed Spending
(CDS) and Community Project Funding (CPF)
The terms “Congressionally Directed Spending” in the Senate and “Community Project Funding”
in the House have been used recently to describe various types of congressional funding
allocations that are often referred to as earmarks. For the FY2026 appropriations cycle, the
Senate Appropriations Committee announced that it would accept CDS requests for a selection of
budget accounts.36 The House Appropriations Committee also made a similar announcement.37
CDS and CPF requests are subject to a number of chamber-specific rules, protocols, and
restrictions. Earmark definitions vary by chamber, but typically refer to funding that directly
benefits a specific entity, locality, congressional district, or state without going through a formula
36 Senate Appropriations Committee, FY2026 Congressionally Directed Spending,
https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy2026_appropriations_requests_general_guidancepdf.pdf.
37 House Appropriations Committee, FY26 Guidance Overview, https://appropriations.house.gov/fy26-guidanceoverview.
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or competitive award process. For the FY2026 cycle, the Senate Appropriations Committee
guidance identified several accounts in the LHHS bill as eligible for CDS requests:38
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
DOL, Employment and Training Administration (ETA), Training and
Employment Services
HHS, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Program
Management
HHS, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA),
Health Surveillance and Program Support
HHS, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Children and Families
Services Programs
HHS, Administration for Community Living (ACL), Aging and Disability
Services Programs
ED, Innovation and Improvement, Fund for the Improvement of Education
ED, Higher Education, Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education
However, the FY2026 House Appropriations Committee guidance did not identify any LHHS
accounts for CPF requests.39
Ultimately, the FY2026 LHHS omnibus provided funding for more than a thousand items
designated as CDS requests across the seven LHHS accounts to which earmark requests were
accepted by the Senate Appropriations Committee. In a handful of cases, these items also carried
a CPF designation and identified a requesting Member of the House. In such cases, the initial
CPF request had been made for the same entity in a bill other than LHHS. A full list of the LHHS
CDS and CPF items can be found on pages H1599-H1625 of the explanatory statement
accompanying the FY2026 LHHS omnibus.40
Department of Labor (DOL)
All amounts in this section are based on regular LHHS appropriations only. The amounts do not
include mandatory funds provided outside of the annual appropriations process (e.g., direct
appropriations for Unemployment Insurance benefits payments). All amounts are rounded (e.g.,
to the nearest million), as labeled. The dollar changes and percentage changes discussed in the
text are based on unrounded amounts. For consistency with source materials, amounts do not
reflect sequestration or re-estimates of mandatory spending programs, where applicable.
38 Senate Appropriations Committee, FY2026 Congressionally Directed Spending,
https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy2026_appropriations_requests_general_guidancepdf.pdf.
39 House Appropriations Committee, FY26 Guidance Overview, https://appropriations.house.gov/fy26-guidanceoverview.
40 The explanatory statement accompanying the FY2026 LHHS omnibus is in the Congressional Record, vol. 172, no.
15, book II, January 22, 2026, pp. H1590-H1660.
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About DOL
DOL is a federal department comprising multiple entities that provide services related to
employment and training, income security, worker protection, contract enforcement, and labor
force information. Annual LHHS appropriations laws direct funding to all DOL entities (see the
text box).42
DOL entities fall primarily into three main
DOL Entities Funded via the
functional areas: workforce development
LHHS
Appropriations Process
(training, employment services, and income
Employment and Training Administration (ETA)
security), worker protection, and labor market
Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
data and analysis. The Employment and
Training Administration (ETA) administers
Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
several workforce employment and training
Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS)
programs—such as the Workforce Innovation
Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs
(OFCCP)
and Opportunity Act (WIOA) state formula
grant programs, Job Corps, and the
Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP)
Employment Service—that provide direct
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
funding for employment activities or
Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)
administration of income security programs
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
(e.g., for the Unemployment Insurance
Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP)
benefits program). Another DOL entity, the
Departmental Management (DM)41
Veterans’ Employment and Training Service
(VETS), provides employment services
specifically for the veteran population. Several DOL agencies enforce federal worker protections
and 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 (WHD) provide different types of regulation and oversight of working conditions.
DOL entities focused on worker protection enforce federal labor laws and provide services to
ensure worker safety, adherence to wage and overtime laws, and contract compliance, among
other duties. In addition, DOL’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects data and provides
analysis on the labor market and related labor issues; BLS is the principal federal statistical
agency responsible for measuring labor market outcomes and trends.
FY2026 Caveats
In general, the DOL section of this report displays funds where they were appropriated and does
not include subsequent transfers, except when noted. This applies to any funds transferred
between accounts, agencies, or departments to, for example, effectuate program moves. (See the
discussion of this issue for DOL in the context of ED in the “Interagency Agreements” section.)
FY2026 DOL Appropriations Overview
Table 3 displays FY2026 enacted and proposed funding levels for DOL, along with FY2024 and
FY2025 enacted levels. Following the conventions in this report, the totals in this table do not
41 Departmental Management includes the DOL salaries and expenses for multiple DOL activities, IT Modernization,
and the Office of the Inspector General.
42 The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is funded primarily through insurance premiums and related fees
from companies covered by the PBGC. For further information, see CRS In Focus IF10492, An Overview of the
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).
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include emergency-designated appropriations; however, note that DOL received no emergencydesignated appropriations in FY2024, FY2025, or FY2026.
Discretionary funds represent the majority of DOL appropriations, accounting for 88% of
FY2026 enacted levels. The FY2026 LHHS omnibus increased discretionary appropriations for
DOL by $65 million (+0.5%) compared to FY2025. Relative to the FY2025 full-year CR,
discretionary DOL appropriations would have decreased by $4.0 billion (-29.6%) under the
House committee bill, increased by $71 million (+0.5%) under the Senate committee bill, and
decreased by $4.6 billion (-33.5%) under the FY2026 President’s budget request.
Table 3. DOL Appropriations Overview
(in billions of dollars)
FY2024
Enact.
FY2025
Est.
FY2026
Req.
FY2026
House
Cmte.
(H.R.
5304)
Discretionary
13.7
13.6
9.0
9.6
13.7
13.7
Mandatory
1.3
1.3
1.9
1.9
1.9
1.9
15.0
14.9
11.0
11.5
15.6
15.6
—
—
—
—
—
—
Funding
Total, DOL BA in the Bill
Emergency Funding (not in
above totals)
FY2026
Senate
Cmte.
(S.
2587)
FY2026
Enact.
Source: Amounts in this table for the “FY2024 Enact.” column are generally drawn from or calculated based on
data contained in the explanatory statement accompanying the FY2024 LHHS omnibus (P.L. 118-47) available in
the Congressional Record, vol. 170, no. 51, book II, March 22, 2024, pp. H1886-H2070. Amounts in this table for
the “FY2025 Est.,” “FY2026 Req.,” and “FY2026 House Cmte.” columns are generally drawn from or calculated
based on data contained in the House Appropriations Committee report accompanying H.R. 5304 (H.Rept. 119271). Amounts in this table for the “FY2026 Senate Cmte.” column are generally drawn from or calculated based
on data contained in the Senate Appropriations Committee report accompanying S. 2587 (S.Rept. 119-55).
Amounts in this table for the “FY2026 Enact.” column are generally drawn from or calculated based on data
contained in the explanatory statement accompanying the FY2026 LHHS omnibus (P.L. 119-75 ) available in the
Congressional Record, vol. 172, no. 15, book II, January 22, 2026, pp. H1590-H1660. Totals (“Total BA in the Bill”)
do not include emergency-designated, contingent, or indefinite discretionary appropriations.
Notes: BA = Budget Authority. Details may not add to totals due to rounding. Amounts in this table (1) reflect
all BA appropriated in the bill, regardless of the year in which funds become available (i.e., totals do not include
advances from prior-year appropriations, but do include advances for subsequent years provided in this bill); (2)
have generally not been adjusted to reflect scorekeeping; (3) comprise only those funds provided (or requested)
for agencies and accounts subject to the jurisdiction of the LHHS subcommittees of the House and Senate
appropriations committees; and (4) do not include appropriations that occur outside of appropriations bills.
Selected DOL Highlights
The following sections present highlights from the FY2026 enacted and proposed appropriations
compared to the FY2025 full-year CR for selected DOL accounts and programs.43
Table 4 displays funding for DOL programs and activities discussed in this section.
43 DOL budget materials can be found at https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol#budget.
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Employment and Training Administration (ETA)
ETA administers federal workforce development programs, including those authorized under Title
I of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA; P.L. 113-128, as amended), and
provides oversight to state workforce agencies in the implementation and administration of state
unemployment insurance programs, federal unemployment compensation programs, and other
wage-loss, worker dislocation, and adjustment assistance compensation programs. These services
are primarily provided through state workforce agencies and local workforce development
systems.
The FY2026 LHHS omnibus provided $10.4 billion in discretionary budget authority for the
ETA. This is $121 million more (+1.2%) than FY2025 ($10.2 billion). Under the FY2026 LHHS
omnibus, the largest discretionary increases at ETA were directed to CDS/CPF activities (+$96
million) which had not been funded under the FY2025 full-year CR, as well as certain program
integrity activities (+$79 million) associated with the DOL Unemployment Compensation
program. Most discretionary ETA programs and activities received flat funding relative to the
FY2025 full-year CR, though a few experienced decreases. Specifically, programs experiencing
decreases in funding in the FY2026 LHHS omnibus compared to FY2025 levels include
•
•
•
•
•
•
WIOA Adult Activities State Grants ($876 million), $10 million (-1.1%) less than
FY2025;
the Reentry Employment Opportunities (REO) program ($110 million), $5
million (-4.3%) less than FY2025;
the Community Service Employment for Older Americans (CSEOA) program
($395 million), $10 million (-2.5%) less than FY2025;
the Employment Service ($693 million), $8 million (-1.1%) less than FY2025;
One-Stop Centers ($53 million), $10 million (-15.6%) less than FY2025; and
ETA Program Administration ($158 million), $14 million (-8.4%) less than
FY2025.
While the FY2026 Senate committee bill would have increased ETA funding by $123 million
(+1.2%) relative to FY2025—including level funding for most WIOA programs—the FY2026
House committee bill would have reduced discretionary ETA funding by $2.9 billion (-28.4%).
The reduction would have primarily come from the proposed elimination of funding for several
workforce programs, including WIOA Youth Activities ($948 million in FY2025), the Migrant
and Seasonal Farmworkers program ($97 million in FY2025), the Reentry Employment
Opportunities program ($115 million in FY2025),44 and Community Service Employment for
Older Americans ($405 million in FY2025). In addition, the House committee bill would have
reduced funding for Job Corps to $880 million, an $880 million (-50.0%) reduction relative to
FY2025.
Within the $301 million appropriation in the FY2026 LHHS omnibus for the WIOA Dislocated
Workers Assistance National Reserve (DWA National Reserve), the explanatory statement
accompanying the FY2026 LHHS omnibus directs ETA to fund four initiatives totaling $137
million, which would leave $164 million for other DWA National Reserve activities.45 The DWA
44 In the FY2026 House committee bill, this is called the Reintegration of Ex-Offenders program.
45 Congressional Record, vol. 172, no. 15, book II, January 22, 2026, p. H1590. These initiatives include the Workforce
Opportunity for Rural Communities Grants ($55 million), the Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants ($65
million), Cybersecurity Grants ($15 million), and the Employee Ownership Initiative ($2 million).
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National Reserve provides employment services and other assistance to workers laid off due to
emergencies or major disasters.
The FY2026 President’s budget proposed to consolidate 11 workforce development programs into
a single $2.9 billion grant program—Make America Skilled Again (MASA). According to the
DOL FY2026 Budget in Brief,
This simplified structure will allow program administrators to spend less time and money
complying with Federal requirements and instead focus on driving toward more effective
approaches and improved outcomes for workers. To help realize President Trump’s
commitment to reach one million active apprentices, the Budget requires that MASA
grantees spend at least 10 percent of their funds on Registered Apprenticeship activities,
guaranteeing funding for this highly effective training model. 46
Funding for this consolidated program was not included in the FY2026 House committee bill, the
FY2026 Senate committee bill, nor the FY2026 LHHS omnibus.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
BLS is the principal federal statistical agency responsible for measuring labor market trends,
working conditions, price changes, and productivity, through data products such as the Current
Population Survey and the Consumer Price Index. The FY2026 LHHS omnibus provided $709
million for BLS, which is an increase of $5 million (+0.6%) compared to FY2025. The FY2026
Senate committee bill would have provided $704 million (the same amount as FY2025) and the
FY2026 House committee bill would have provided $714 million, an increase of $10 million
(+1.4%) compared to FY2025. The FY2026 President’s budget proposed transferring most BLS
funding and activities from DOL to the Department of Commerce. Under the budget proposal, a
total of $68 million (the same as FY2025) would have remained at DOL for carrying out certain
BLS Labor Market Information activities. All other funds for existing BLS activities (a total of
$580 million under the President’s proposal) would have been directed to the Department of
Commerce. According to the BLS FY2026 Congressional Justification, to achieve cost savings
beyond those in the reorganization proposal, BLS would “prioritize the most mission critical
activities necessary for the production of the core data series ... required by statute, or in use in
current law.”47 Neither the FY2026 LHHS omnibus, FY2026 Senate committee bill, nor FY2026
House committee bill reflected this reorganization proposal.
The congressional explanatory materials accompanying the FY2026 LHHS omnibus, the FY2026
House committee report, and the FY2026 Senate committee report addressed the work of BLS in
various ways. For example,
•
•
the explanatory statement accompanying the FY2026 LHHS omnibus
“encourag[ed] BLS to evaluate the impact of artificial intelligence on the
economy, including job loss, creation, and displacement;”48
the FY2026 House Appropriations committee report highlighted issues related to
declining labor survey response rates, regional inflation data, measurement of
46 FY 2026 Department of Labor Budget in Brief, pp. 1-2, https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/general/budget/2026/
FY2026BIB.pdf.
47 The BLS budget justification clarifies that “the FY2026 request is included in the Department’s budget materials, but
the Budget proposes to reorganize the BLS, Census Bureau, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the Department of
Commerce, under the policy direction of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs.” FY 2026 Congressional Budget
Justification Bureau of Labor Statistics, pp. BLS-9, https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/general/budget/2026/CBJ2026-V3-01.pdf.
48 Congressional Record, vol. 172, no. 15, book II, January 22, 2026, pp. H1590.
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Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
•
labor market outcomes for military spouses, the Standard Occupational
Classification of pharmacists, and cost estimates for a survey on employerprovided training;49 and
the FY2026 Senate Appropriations Committee report also highlighted declining
labor survey response rates, and directed the Government Accountability Office
(GAO) to report on the impact of the elimination of certain advisory committees
on data quality and reliability, and directed BLS to maintain funding for the
current National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) cohorts and to continue
development of the new NLSY27 cohort.50
Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB)
ILAB provides research, advocacy, technical assistance, and grants to promote workers’ rights in
different parts of the world. The FY2026 LHHS omnibus provided $116 million for ILAB, which
is the same as the FY2025 LHHS full-year CR level. The FY2026 Senate committee bill would
have provided $111 million for ILAB, a decrease of $5 million (-4.3%), while the FY2026 House
committee bill would have eliminated funding for ILAB and the FY2026 President’s budget
would have decreased ILAB funding by $46 million (-39.5%). The DOL Budget in Brief
explained these proposed reductions as follows: “Consistent with putting American Workers First,
the Budget streamlines the ILAB, reorienting it to focus on its core work of enforcing the labor
provisions of trade agreements, ensuring that American workers and businesses benefit from
international trade.”51
Labor-Related General Provisions
Annual LHHS appropriations acts regularly contain general provisions related to certain labor
issues. This section highlights selected DOL general provisions in the FY2026 LHHS omnibus.
The FY2026 LHHS omnibus continued several provisions that have been included in previous
LHHS appropriations acts, including those that
•
•
•
exempted certain insurance claims adjusters from overtime protection for two
years following a “major disaster” (included since FY2016);52
directed the Secretary of Labor to accept private wage surveys as part of the
process of determining prevailing wages in the H-2B program, even in instances
in which relevant wage data are available from BLS (included since FY2016);53
authorized the Secretary of Labor to provide up to $450,000 in “excess personal
property” to apprenticeship programs to assist training apprentices (included
since FY2018);54
49 H. Rept. 119-271 pp. 27-28.
50 S. Rept. 119-55, pp. 33-34.
51 FY 2026 Department of Labor Budget in Brief, p. 3, https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/general/budget/2026/
FY2026BIB.pdf.
52 See Division B, Title I, §108 of P.L. 119-75.
53 See Division B, Title I, §110 of P.L. 119-75. The H-2B program allows for the temporary employment of foreign
workers in nonagricultural sectors and requires these workers to be paid the “prevailing wage” (i.e., the average wage
paid to similar workers in the local area). Under DOL regulations, private employer surveys may be considered only if
the employer meets certain conditions.
54 See Division B, Title I, §112 of P.L. 119-75.
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Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
•
•
•
authorized the Secretary of Labor to employ law enforcement officers or special
agents to provide protection to the Secretary of Labor and certain other
employees and family members at public events and in situations in which there
is a “unique and articulable” threat of physical harm (included since FY2018);55
authorized the Secretary of Labor to dispose of or divest “by any means the
Secretary determines appropriate” all or part of the real property on which the
Treasure Island Job Corps Center and the Gary Job Corps Center are located
(included since FY2018);56 and
prohibited annual appropriations from being used to alter the Interagency
Agreement between DOL and the U.S. Department of Agriculture or to close any
Civilian Conservation Centers unless certain conditions are met (included since
FY2020).57
Table 4. Detailed DOL Appropriations
(in millions of dollars)
FY2024
Enact.
FY2025
Est.
FY2026
Req.
FY2026
House
Cmte.
(H.R.
5304)
31
34
50
50
50
50
10,351
10,249
6,699
7,334
10,372
10,370
Training and Employment Services:
4,006
3,899
2,966
2,594
3,977
3,982
State Formula Grants:
2,929
2,929
0
1,808
2,919
2,919
Adult Activities Grants to
States
886
886
0
712
876
876
Youth Activities Grants to
States
948
948
0
0
948
948
Dislocated Worker
Activities (DWA) Grants to
States
1,096
1,096
0
1,096
1,096
1,096
1,077
969
2,966
787
1,058
1,062
DWA National Reserve
301
301
0
326
301
301
Native Americans
60
60
0
65
60
63
Migrant and Seasonal
Farmworkers
97
97
0
0
97
97
YouthBuild
105
105
0
105
105
105
Reentry Employment
Opportunities
115
115
0
0
110
110
Agency or Selected Program
ETA—Mandatorya
ETA—Discretionary
FY2026
Senate
Cmte.
(S.
2587)
FY2026
Enact.
Discretionary ETA Programs:
National Activities:
55 See Division B, Title I, §113 of P.L. 119-75.
56 See Division B, Title I, §114 of P.L. 119-75.
57 See Division B, Title I, §115 of P.L. 119-75.
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Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
FY2024
Enact.
FY2025
Est.
FY2026
Req.
FY2026
House
Cmte.
(H.R.
5304)
Workforce Data Quality
Initiative
6
6
0
6
6
6
Apprenticeship Grants
285
285
0
285
285
285
CPF/CDS
108
0
0
0
94
96
0
0
2,966
0
0
0
1,760
1,760
176
880
1,760
1,760
Community Service Employment for
Older Americans
405
405
0
0
395
395
State Unemployment Insurance and
Employment Service Operations
(SUI/ESO):
4,006
4,012
3,422
3,725
4,081
4,075
Unemployment Compensation
3,160
3,166
3,270
2,894
3,245
3,245
Employment Service
700
700
18
693
695
693
Foreign Labor Certification
84
84
82
86
84
85
One-Stop Career Centers
63
63
53
53
58
53
ETA Program Administration
173
173
135
135
158
158
Veterans Employment and
Training
335
335
342
342
335
335
Employee Benefits Security
Administration
191
191
181
181
191
191
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp, (PBGC)
program level (non-add)b
(513)
(513)
(494)
(494)
(494)
(494)
Wage and Hour Division
260
260
235
235
260
260
Office of Labor-Management
Standards
49
49
49
49
49
49
Office of Federal Contract
Compliance Programs
111
111
0
0
106
101
Office of Workers’
Compensation Programs—
Mandatoryc
1,249
1,310
1,874
1,874
1,874
1,874
Office of Workers’
Compensation Programs—
Discretionary
123
123
110
110
123
123
Occupational Safety & Health
Administration
632
632
582
582
632
629
Mine Safety & Health
Administration
388
388
348
348
388
388
Bureau of Labor Statistics
698
704
68
714
704
709
Office of Disability Employment
Policy
43
43
34
37
43
43
Agency or Selected Program
Make America Skilled Again
Job Corps
Congressional Research Service
FY2026
Senate
Cmte.
(S.
2587)
FY2026
Enact.
28
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education: FY2026 Appropriations
FY2024
Enact.
FY2025
Est.
FY2026
Req.
FY2026
House
Cmte.
(H.R.
5304)
Departmental Management
514
514
399
359
468
467
Salaries and Expenses
388
388
301
231
364
363
(116)
(116)
(70)
(0)
(111)
(116)
IT Modernization
29
29
7
29
7
7
Office of the Inspector General
97
97
91
99
97
97
Total, DOL BA in the Bill
14,975
14,943
10,972
11,504
15,595
15,589
Subtotal, Mandatory
1,280
1,344
1,925
1,925
1,925
1,925
Subtotal, Discretionary
13,695
13,599
9,047
9,580
13,670
13,664
—
—
—
—
—
—
Total, BA Available in Fiscal Year
(current year from any bill)
14,978
14,944
10,972
11,504
15,595
15,589
Total, BA Advances for Future Years
(provided in current bill)
1,779
1,778
1,778
1,778
1,778
1,778
Total, BA Advances from Prior Years
(for use in current year)
1,782
1,779
1,778
1,778
1,778
1,778
Agency or Selected Program
Bureau of International Labor Affairs
(non-add)d
Emergency Funding (not in above totals or
memoranda below)
FY2026
Senate
Cmte.
(S.
2587)
FY2026
Enact.
Memoranda
Source: Amounts in this table for the “FY2024 Enact.” column are generally drawn from or calculated based on
data contained in the explanatory statement accompanying the FY2024 LHHS omnibus (P.L. 118-47) available in
the Congressional Record, vol. 170, no. 51, book II, March 22, 2024, pp. H1886-H2070. Amounts in this table for
the “FY2025 Est.,” “FY2026 Req.,” and “FY2026 House Cmte.” columns are generally drawn from or calculated
based on data contained in the House Appropriations Committee report accompanying H.R. 5304 (H.Rept. 119271). Amounts in this table for the “FY2026 Senate Cmte.” column are generally drawn from or calculated based
on data contained in the Senate Appropriations Committee report accompanying S. 2587 (S.Rept. 119-55).
Amounts in this table for the “FY2026 Enact.” column are generally drawn from or calculated based on data
contained in the explanatory statement accompanying the FY2026 LHHS omnibus (P.L. 119-75 ) available in the
Congressional Record, vol. 172, no. 15, book II, January 22, 2026, pp. H1590-H1660. Totals (“Total BA in the Bill”)
do not include emergency-designated, contingent, or indefinite discretionary appropriations.
Notes: BA = Budget Authority. CPF/CDS = Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending.
Details may not add to totals due to rounding. Amounts in this table (1) reflect all BA appropriated in the bill,
regardless of the year in which funds become available (i.e., totals do not include advances from prior-year
appropriations, but do include advances for subsequent years provided in this bill); (2) have generally not been
adjusted to reflect scorekeeping; (3) comprise only those funds provided (or requested) for agencies and
accounts subject to the jurisdiction of the LHHS subcommittees of the House and Senate appropriations
committees; and (4) do not include appropriations that occur outside of appropriations bills.
a. Mandatory funding within ETA goes to Federal Unemployment Benefits and Allowances (FUBA) and
Advances to the Unemployment Trust Fund (UTF), if any. FUBA funds Trade Adjustment Assistance for
Workers (TAA). Termination provisions for the TAA program took effect on July 1, 2022. DOL continues
to provide some funding for FUBA to provide benefits and services to workers who had been certified as
TAA-eligible prior to July 1, 2022. For details, see FY2026 Congressional Budget Justification, Federal
Unemployment Benefits and Allowances, p. FUBA-10, https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/general/budget/
2024/CBJ-2026-V1-06.pdf.
b. PBGC funding is provided outside the LHHS appropriations act.
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c.
d.
Mandatory programs in the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs include Special Benefits
(comprising the Federal Employees’ Compensation Benefits and the Longshore and Harbor Workers’
Benefits), Special Benefits for Disabled Coal Miners, Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation
(Administrative Expenses), and the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.
The funding for the Bureau of International Labor Affairs is included in the Salaries and Expenses total.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
All amounts in this section are based on regular LHHS 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 mandatory funds provided by authorizing laws). All amounts in
this section are rounded (e.g., to the nearest million), as labeled. The dollar changes and
percentage changes discussed in the text are based on unrounded amounts. For consistency with
source materials, amounts do not reflect sequestration or re-estimates of mandatory spending
programs, where applicable.
About HHS
HHS is a large federal department composed
of multiple agencies working to enhance the
health and well-being of Americans. Annual
LHHS appropriations laws direct funding to
most (but not all) HHS agencies (see text box
for HHS agencies supported by the LHHS
bill).58
HHS Agencies Funded via the
LHHS Appropriations Process
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
National Institutes of Health (NIH), which houses the
Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPAH)
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA)
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
Administration for Community Living (ACL)
Administration for Strategic Preparedness & Response
(ASPR)
Office of the Secretary (OS)
The LHHS bill directs funding to multiple
Public Health Service (PHS) agencies,
including the Health Resources and Services
Administration (HRSA), the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), the
Advanced Research Projects Agency for
Health59 (ARPA-H), the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA), the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the
Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR). 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,
58 Three HHS public health agencies receive annual funding from appropriations bills other than the LHHS bill: the
Food and Drug Administration (funded through the Agriculture appropriations bill), the Indian Health Service (funded
through the Interior-Environment appropriations bill), and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
(funded through the Interior-Environment appropriations bill). In addition, while the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) receive the majority of their appropriations from the LHHS bill, one NIH institute (the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences) receives appropriations from two bills: LHHS and the Interior-Environment bill.
59 ARPA-H is housed within NIH, but its director reports to the HHS Secretary. As a result, ARPA-H is sometimes
treated as its own agency. However, consistent with the source materials used for this report, ARPA-H funding is
shown within NIH.
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NIH, ARPA-H), to protection and promotion of public health (e.g., CDC) and public health
emergency preparedness and response (ASPR).
In addition to funding the above PHS agencies, the LHHS bill provides funding for annually
appropriated components of the CMS,60 which is the HHS agency responsible for the
administration of Medicare, Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP),
and consumer protections and private health insurance provisions of the Affordable Care Act
(ACA; P.L. 111-148, as amended).
The LHHS bill also provides funding for two HHS agencies focused primarily on the provision of
social services: the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Administration for
Community Living (ACL). ACF’s mission is to promote the economic and social well-being of
vulnerable children, youth, families, and communities. ACL was formed with a goal of increasing
access to community supports for older Americans and people with disabilities.
In addition, the LHHS bill provides funding for the HHS Office of the Secretary (OS), which
encompasses a broad array of management, research, and oversight functions in support of the
entire department.
Proposed FY2026 HHS Reorganization
The FY2026 HHS budget request proposed a wide-spread reorganization of the department that
would have consolidated several HHS agencies. For example, the budget would have
•
•
•
•
consolidated into a new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) two
existing operating divisions—the Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA)—as well as the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
(NIEHS; of NIH) and some programs from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), and some programs of the OS;
eliminated the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR)
and transferred most of its functions to the CDC and the OS;
eliminated the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and moved
most of its functions to a proposed new staff division (the Office of Strategy)
under the OS; and
consolidated into a new Administration for Children, Families, and Communities
(ACFC) two existing operating divisions—the Administration for Children and
Families (ACF) and Administration on Community Living (ACL).
These reorganization proposals were largely not adopted in the House committee bill, Senate
committee bill, or in the enacted FY2026 LHHS omnibus. The President’s budget request, as
displayed in this report, is generally drawn from or estimated based on the House Appropriations
Committee’s representation of the budget proposal. In large part, the House committee’s analysis
of the President’s request does not reflect the proposed reorganization, instead displaying most of
the President’s HHS funding requests according to the department’s existing organizational
structure.61 These adjustments for comparability allow for easier comparison at the program,
project, and activity level.
60 Much of the funding for CMS activities is provided through mandatory appropriations in authorizing legislation, and
thus is not subject to the annual appropriations process.
61 For instance, House committee report (H.Rept. 119-271, p. 330) indicates that the $575 million in discretionary
(continued...)
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In addition to the proposed reorganizations, the President’s budget also proposed eliminating
funding for a number of HHS programs and activities. Under this proposal, the largest share of
the HHS discretionary request for entities funded by LHHS would have been distributed to the
PHS agencies: $49.1 billion, or about 58% of HHS discretionary funding as a whole. When
compared to the existing HHS structure, this would be a lower proportion of funds for the PHS
agencies than has recently been provided (about 64% in FY2025), or was ultimately provided in
the FY2026 LHHS omnibus (65%). The largest of the PHS agencies, NIH, was proposed to
receive about 35% of HHS discretionary funding in the President’s budget, which was also a
lower proportion of funds than had recently been provided (about 40% in FY2025 and 41% in
FY2026 enacted). ACF and ACL combined would have received roughly 35% of discretionary
HHS funds under the proposed reorganization, which is a higher proportion than had recently
been provided (31% in both FY2025 and FY2026).
Ultimately, the FY2026 House committee bill, FY2026 Senate committee bill, and FY2026
LHHS omnibus, appropriated funding to HHS under its existing structure and generally not to
these proposed new entities. In addition, new language was enacted in the FY2026 LHHS
omnibus that addressed multiple aspects of funds distribution and expenditure at HHS. For
example, NIH language addressed issues related to the distribution of grant funds, including a
new provision on multiyear award funding (§224), and the retention of a longstanding provision
related to caps on indirect costs under grants (§240). And a new provision was enacted pertaining
to the proposed CDC reorganization that required the HHS Secretary to submit to the House and
Senate Appropriations Committee and make publicly available a detailed plan and justification of
any reorganization moving CDC functions prior to carrying it out. This language also directed
that HHS “shall support staffing levels necessary to fulfill its statutory responsibilities including
carrying out programs, projects, and activities funded in this title of this Act in a timely manner”
(§239).
FY2026 Caveats
In general, the HHS section of this report displays funds where they were appropriated and does
not include subsequent transfers, except when noted. This applies to any funds transferred
between accounts, agencies, or departments to, for example, effectuate program moves. (See the
discussion of this issue for HHS in the context of ED in the “Interagency Agreements” section).
Consistent with the rest of the report, the HHS section generally does not include emergency
appropriations in the totals that follow. (These emergency funds are listed at the bottom of Table
5 and are not included in the table totals.) However, in limited cases (specifically two accounts at
ACF), some emergency designated appropriations are included in FY2024 and FY2025 totals,
where noted, because the funds were effectively provided for regular program operations, rather
than being targeted to needs arising from a particular disaster or other event (e.g., hurricane). No
emergency-designated appropriations had been proposed or enacted for FY2026 as of the date of
this report. Consistent with the rest of the report, all emergency-designated funding also is
included at the bottom of these HHS tables.
budget authority for the proposed Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) shown in the committee’s table
represents amounts from the Administration’s AHA budget proposal that have not been attributed to other HHS
agencies in the committee report.
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FY2026 HHS Appropriations Overview
Table 5 displays FY2026 proposed and enacted funding levels for HHS, along with FY2024 and
FY2025 levels. The totals in this table do not include emergency-designated appropriations.
Those amounts (if applicable) are displayed separately, along with the law in which they were
enacted, at the bottom of the table and are in addition to regular appropriations.
In general, discretionary funds account for 7.5% of HHS appropriations in the LHHS bill. The
FY2026 LHHS omnibus increased appropriations for HHS by 0.2% relative to FY2025. The
FY2026 House committee bill would have decreased LHHS appropriations by 5.7%, whereas the
President’s request would have decreased funding by 27.6%. The Senate committee bill would
have increased funding by 0.4%.
Table 5. HHS Appropriations Overview
(in billions of dollars)
FY2024
Enact.
FY2025
Est.
FY2026
Req.
FY2026
House
Cmte.
(H.R.
5304)
Discretionary
117.4
116.1
84.0
109.5
116.6
116.4
Mandatory
1,149.1
1,185.6
1,438.5
1,438.5
1,438.5
1,438.5
Total, HHS BA in the Bill
1,266.5
1,301.7
1,522.5
1,547.9
1,555.1
1,554.9
P.L. 118-50
0.5
—
—
—
—
—
P.L. 118-158
—
0.5
—
—
—
—
Funding
FY2026
Senate
Cmte.
(S. 2587)
FY2026
Enact.
Emergency Funding (not in
above totals)a
Source: Amounts in this table for the “FY2024 Enact.” column are generally drawn from or calculated based on
data contained in the explanatory statement accompanying the FY2024 LHHS omnibus (P.L. 118-47) available in
the Congressional Record, vol. 170, no. 51, book II, March 22, 2024, pp. H1886-H2070. Amounts in this table for
the “FY2025 Est.,” “FY2026 Req.,” and “FY2026 House Cmte.” columns are generally drawn from or calculated
based on data contained in the House Appropriations Committee report accompanying H.R. 5304 (H.Rept. 119271). Amounts in this table for the “FY2026 Senate Cmte.” column are generally drawn from or calculated based
on data contained in the Senate Appropriations Committee report accompanying S. 2587 (S.Rept. 119-55).
Amounts in this table for the “FY2026 Enact.” column are generally drawn from or calculated based on data
contained in the explanatory statement accompanying the FY2026 LHHS omnibus (P.L. 119-75 ) available in the
Congressional Record, vol. 172, no. 15, book II, January 22, 2026, pp. H1590-H1660. Totals (“Total BA in the Bill”)
do not include emergency-designated, contingent, or indefinite discretionary appropriations. CRS calculations do,
however, include LHHS funding provided to HHS pursuant to the 21 st Century Cures Act (P.L. 114-255), as
amended.
Notes: BA = Budget Authority. Details may not add to totals due to rounding. Amounts in this table (1) reflect
all BA appropriated in the bill, regardless of the year in which funds become available (i.e., totals do not include
advances from prior-year appropriations, but do include advances for subsequent years provided in this bill); (2)
have generally not been adjusted to reflect scorekeeping; (3) comprise only those funds provided (or requested)
for agencies and accounts subject to the jurisdiction of the LHHS subcommittees of the House and Senate
appropriations committees; and (4) do not include appropriations that occur outside of appropriations bills.
a. The FY2024 LHHS omnibus, FY2025 full year CR, the FY2026 President’s budget request, the FY2026
Senate committee bill, and the FY2026 LHHS omnibus, included a contingent appropriation for the HHS
Refugee and Entrant Assistance account. (No such funds were included in the FY2026 House committee
bill.) The contingent funds became available only if certain conditions were met. Consistent with source
materials, the estimated amount of the contingent appropriations is treated as a scorekeeping adjustment
and is thus not included in this total, where applicable.
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Figure 3 provides an HHS agency-level breakdown of the FY2026 enacted non-emergency HHS
appropriations. As this figure demonstrates, 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 accounts for 91.5% of enacted FY2026 appropriations for HHS. ACF and NIH
account for the next-largest shares of total HHS appropriations, receiving 3.3% and 3.0% apiece,
respectively.
By contrast, when looking exclusively at discretionary appropriations, funding for CMS
constitutes about 4.0% of enacted FY2026 HHS appropriations. The bulk of discretionary
appropriations goes to the PHS agencies, which combined account for 64.7% of discretionary
appropriations provided for HHS. NIH typically receives the largest share of all discretionary
funding among HHS agencies (40.6% in FY2026 enacted), with ACF accounting for the secondlargest share (28.4% in FY2026 enacted).
Figure 3. FY2026 Enacted HHS Appropriations by Agency
(budget authority in billions of dollars)
Source: Amounts in this figure are generally drawn from or calculated based on data contained in the
explanatory statement accompanying the FY2026 LHHS omnibus (P.L. 119-75 ) available in the Congressional
Record, vol. 172, no. 15, book II, January 22, 2026, pp. H1590-H1660. Enacted totals for FY2026 do not include
contingent or indefinite discretionary appropriations. For consistency with source materials, amounts in this
figure generally do not reflect mandatory spending sequestration, where applicable, nor do they reflect any
transfers or reprogramming of funds pursuant to executive authorities. CRS calculations do, however, include
LHHS funding provided to HHS pursuant to the 21st Century Cures Act (P.L. 114-255), as amended.
Notes: Details may not add to totals due to rounding. The bar representing the combined mandatory and
discretionary total for CMS has been abbreviated due to space constraints. When taking into account both
mandatory and discretionary funding, CMS receives over 20 times the funding appropriated to either ACF or
NIH in the FY2026 LHHS omnibus. Amounts in this table (1) reflect all BA appropriated in the bill, regardless of
the year in which funds become available (i.e., totals do not include advances from prior-year appropriations, but
do include advances for subsequent years provided in this bill); (2) have generally not been adjusted to reflect
scorekeeping; (3) comprise only those funds provided (or requested) for agencies and accounts subject to the
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jurisdiction of the LHHS subcommittees of the House and Senate appropriations committees; and (4) do not
include appropriations that occur outside of appropriations bills.
Special Public Health Funding Mechanisms
Annual appropriations for HHS Public Health Service agencies are perhaps best understood in the
context of certain HHS-specific funding mechanisms, including the Public Health Service
Evaluation Set-Aside, the PPHF, and 21st Century Cures Act authorities. In recent years, LHHS
appropriations have used these funding mechanisms to direct additional support to certain
programs and activities.
Public Health Service Evaluation Tap
Display of PHS Evaluation Tap Transfers
By convention, appropriations acts direct the allocation of specified PHS Evaluation Tap transfers, but do not
specify the PHS funds that are to be the sources of those transfers. Thus, tables in this report show only the
amount of PHS Evaluation Tap funds received by an agency (i.e., tables do not subtract the amount of the
evaluation tap transfers from donor agencies’ appropriations). This also means that for agencies receiving tap
amounts shown in the following tables, these amounts are in addition to the amount of budget authority in those
tables. However, those budget authority amounts have not been reduced to reflect the potential transfer out of
funds under the tap.
The PHS Evaluation Set-Aside, also known as the PHS Evaluation Tap, is a unique feature of
HHS appropriations. It is authorized by Section 241 of the Public Health Service Act (PHSA),
and allows the Secretary of HHS to redistribute a portion of eligible PHS agency appropriations
across HHS for program evaluation purposes. The PHSA limits the set-aside to not less than 0.2%
and not more than 1.0% of eligible program appropriations.
LHHS appropriations acts commonly establish additional requirements and authorities for these
funds beyond those in Section 241 of the PHSA. These include a higher maximum percentage for
the set-aside and directing transfers of specific amounts of tap funding to selected HHS programs.
Since FY2010, and including in FY2026, this higher maximum set-aside level has been 2.5% of
eligible appropriations (§204).62 The House committee bill, Senate committee bill, and the
President’s budget, all proposed to continue this 2.5% level. With regard to the directed transfers,
the LHHS acts do not specify which account is the source of the transfer. As a result, tables show
amounts transferred in, without showing amounts transferred out (see text box above).
Each fiscal year, after the LHHS appropriations act allocates this tap transfer authority to
specified programs, any transfer authority that remains unallocated is available to be used by the
HHS Secretary pursuant to the parameters established in law. (Such post-enactment PHS
Evaluation Tap transfers are generally not within this scope of this report.) In addition, a
longstanding LHHS provision (see §203 in the FY2026 LHHS omnibus) prohibits funds from
being expended that have been transferred pursuant to Section 241 or “for any other taps and
assessments made by any office located in HHS” until the HHS Secretary submits to the House
and Senate Appropriations Committees a report detailing the planned uses of the tapped funds.
This requirement does not apply to funds that the LHHS act specifically allocates for tap transfers
62 The last time that an appropriations act set the PHS tap percentage at a level other than 2.5% was in FY2009, when it
was 2.4% (see P.L. 111-8). The FY2026 omnibus retained a change to this provision, first included in the FY2014
omnibus, allowing tap transfers to be used for the “evaluation … and the implementation” of programs funded in the
HHS title of the LHHS appropriations act. Prior to FY2014, such provisions had restricted tap funds to the “evaluation
… of the implementation” of programs authorized under the Public Health Service Act. The FY2026 House committee
bill, Senate committee bill, and President’s budget would have retained the recent phrasing (“and”) in §204.
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(e.g., those for NIH discussed below). Prior to the FY2026 LHHS omnibus, this provision applied
only to taps and assessments of funds appropriated in the LHHS act, but the FY2026 LHHS
omnibus included language expanding its scope to HHS funds in any other FY2026
appropriations act (e.g., HHS funds appropriated under the Agriculture appropriations act and the
Interior-Environment appropriations act). This FY2026 expansion of the provision was proposed
by the House committee bill. The Senate committee bill would have continued the language that
was in effect prior to FY2026, whereas the President’s budget proposed to eliminate the entire
provision.
Before FY2015, LHHS appropriations acts traditionally used the PHS Evaluation Tap to provide
more than a dozen HHS programs with funding beyond their annual appropriations; in some
cases, this was the sole source of funding for a program or activity. However, between FY2015
and FY2023, LHHS appropriations acts directed tap funds to a smaller number of programs or
activities within three HHS agencies (NIH, SAMHSA, and OS). This change was particularly
notable for AHRQ, which was funded primarily through tap transfers from FY2003 to FY2014,
but has received discretionary appropriations since then.63 Also between FY2015 and FY2023,
LHHS appropriations laws directed the largest share of tap transfers to NIH.
Since FY2024 and including in FY2026, PHS tap transfers were also directed to the Public Health
Scientific Services (PHSS) within the CDC. The FY2026 LHHS omnibus directed $43 million in
such transfers, the same as FY2025 and as proposed in the FY2026 Senate committee bill. The
President’s budget had proposed that the CDC be transferred tap funds in the amount of $380
million (to support both PHSS and CDC Cross-Cutting Activities and Program Support), whereas
the House committee bill proposed no such transfers for the CDC.
For OS, the FY2026 LHHS omnibus directed $101 million in tap transfers, a decrease (-$33
million, -24.9%) relative to FY2025. The Senate committee bill had proposed the same amount of
funding as FY2025 ($134 million), whereas the House floor bill proposed a $17 million decrease
(-12.5%), and the President’s budget proposed an $81 million decrease (-60.4%). Within the tap
transfers for OS, $36 million of these were directed to the Office of the National Coordinator for
Health Information Technology. This office was solely funded by tap transfers between FY2022
and FY2025, but now is funded by a combination of transfers and discretionary appropriations
totaling $69 million (the same total amount of funding as FY2025).
For NIH, the FY2026 LHHS omnibus directed $1.427 billion in tap transfers, $15 million
(+1.1%) more than FY2025 enacted. The Senate committee bill proposed the same amount of tap
transfers to NIH as FY2025, whereas the House committee bill proposed a $47 million (-3.4%)
reduction, and the President’s Budget proposed a $1.162 billion (-82.3%) reduction.
Finally, for SAMHSA, the FY2026 LHHS omnibus directed the same amount of PHS Evaluation
Tap transfers ($134 million) as in FY2025, the same total as the Senate committee bill. The
House committee bill proposed to reduce these transfers by $2 million (-1.5%), and the
President’s budget proposed to reduce them by $3 million (-2.2%).
63 Until FY2015, AHRQ had not received a discretionary appropriation in an annual appropriations act in more than a
decade. FY2009 was the exception to this general pattern, as AHRQ received a supplemental appropriation from the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that year. In recent years, AHRQ has also received some transfers from the
Prevention and Public Health Fund and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund, though these transfers
were generally much smaller than the transfers AHRQ received from the tap. For more information, see CRS Report
R44136, The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Budget: Fact Sheet.
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Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF)
Display of PPHF Transfers
PPHF transfer amounts displayed in the HHS tables in this report are in addition to amounts shown for budget
authority provided in the bill. For consistency with source materials the amounts shown for PPHF transfers in
these tables reflect the estimated effects of mandatory spending sequestration; this is not the case for other
mandatory spending shown in this report (also for consistency with source materials).
The PPHF contains a permanent, annual appropriation that is intended to provide support each
year to prevention, wellness, and related public health programs funded through HHS accounts.
PPHF funds are intended to supplement the funding that selected programs receive through
regular appropriations. The PPHF authority instructs the HHS Secretary to transfer amounts from
the fund to HHS agencies. However, since FY2014, provisions in annual appropriations acts and
accompanying reports have explicitly directed the distribution of PPHF funds and prohibited the
Secretary from making further transfers for those years.64
Initially, the law that established the PPHF (ACA, §4002) appropriated $2 billion in mandatory
funds to the PPHF each fiscal year. This amount was reduced by subsequent laws that decreased
PPHF funding for specified fiscal years.65 Under current law, the FY2026 appropriation is $1.525
billion.66 This appropriation is subject to a 5.7% reduction due to sequestration of nonexempt
mandatory spending.67 (For more information on sequestration, see the budget enforcement
discussion in the Appendix.) After sequestration, the total PPHF appropriation available for
FY2024 is $1.438 billion, a $212 million increase relative to FY2025. The FY2026 LHHS
omnibus (and earlier congressional proposals) distributed the entirety of this additional funding to
the CDC. In total, the CDC received $1.398 billion, which is 17.9% more than FY2025. The
FY2026 LHHS omnibus (and earlier congressional proposals) also allocated $12 million to
SAMHSA and $28 million to ACL (the same as FY2025). The FY2026 President’s budget
proposed to entirely eliminate the PPHF.
21st Century Cures Act, NIH Innovation Account
Display of Cures Act Transfers
For consistency with source materials, the directed transfers of Cures Act funding shown in Table 7 are in
addition to amounts otherwise appropriated to the accounts. In addition, note that in the case of funds for the
BRAIN Initiative, these are displayed for the institutes to which they were transferred by HHS.68
The 21st Century Cures Act (P.L. 114-255; hereinafter, the “Cures Act”) established the NIH
Innovation Account. The Cures Act transferred funds to the NIH Innovation Account and
authorized specific amounts to be appropriated for each of FY2017 through FY2026. For
FY2026, the amount authorized and subsequently appropriated in the FY2026 LHHS omnibus
was $226 million, which was $181 million (-44.5%) less than the amount authorized for FY2024
64 For the provision in the FY2024 LHHS omnibus, see P.L. 118-47, Division D, Section 222.
65 For a list of these laws and the amounts that were changed, see CRS Report R47895, Prevention and Public Health
Fund: In Brief.
66 42 U.S.C. §300u-11.
67 OMB Report to the Congress on the BBEDCA 251A Sequestration for Fiscal Year 2026, May 30, 2025, p. 6,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/BBEDCA_Sequestration_Report_and_Letter_3-132024.pdf.
68 For more detail, see https://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/pdfs/FY25/cy/
FY%202024%20NIH%20Operating%20Plan%20-%20Web%20Version.pdf
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($407 million), and $99 million (+78.0) more than the amount authorized for FY2025 ($127
million). This amount was distributed as $195 million for the BRAIN Initiative and $31 million
for the Precision Medicine Initiative. As with the PHS tap and PPHF, these directed transfers are
noted (where applicable) in the discussion and tables that follow.
The Cures Act also specified that amounts appropriated to the NIH Innovation Account (up to the
authorized funding level for the year) are effectively to be excluded from certain budgetary
estimates. For consistency with source documents, the NIH, HHS, and bill-wide totals in this
report generally include funds provided to this account. An exception is that these funds are
excluded from totals in Table A-1, as this table only includes LHHS funds subject to
discretionary spending limits.
Selected HHS Highlights by Agency
The following sections present highlights from the FY2026 enacted appropriations compared to
FY2024 enacted, FY2025 enacted, and FY2026 proposals, for selected HHS agencies.69 These
summaries are followed by 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. The section concludes with two tables (Table 6 and Table 7) presenting more
detailed information on these funding levels for HHS.
Incorporation of FY2026 HHS Funding Distributions by Reference
The statutory appropriations text for several HHS agencies and accounts effectively incorporated by reference
funding distributions for specified HHS entities and programs as laid out in the explanatory statement. (See the
overview of this topic in the “Report Language and Incorporation by Reference” section of this CRS report.)
Although incorporation by reference is typical for designated CDS/CPF and PPHF projects, this practice during the
FY2026 appropriations cycle grew to encompass multiple accounts and headings where this had not been the case
in prior fiscal years. In other words, the distributions in the accounts and headings listed below had previously
been made in the explanatory statement only, and these allocations were not referenced in the act itself. The
accounts and headings with these new distributions incorporated by reference are:
Health Resources and Services Administration: Health Workforce; Maternal and Child Health; Ryan White
HIV/AIDS Program; Rural Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; HIV/AIDS; Viral
Hepatitis, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and Tuberculosis Prevention; Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious
Diseases; Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; Birth Defects, Developmental Disabilities,
Disabilities and Health; Public Health Scientific Services; Environmental Health; Injury Prevention and Control;
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; Global Health; Public Health Preparedness and Response;
CDC-Wide Activities and Program Support
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration: Mental Health; Substance Abuse Treatment;
Substance Abuse Prevention
Administration for Children and Families: Children and Family Services Programs
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
HRSA is a federal agency focused on delivering health care services to those who are
geographically isolated and economically or medically vulnerable.70 Major HRSA programs
include Community Health Centers, which supply primary and preventative care to millions of
patients regardless of their ability to pay, and multiple programs under other focus areas including
69 HHS budget materials can be found at http://www.hhs.gov/budget/.
70 HRSA, About HRSA, https://www.hrsa.gov/about.
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Health Workforce (e.g., Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education), Maternal and Child
Health (e.g., Healthy Start), Ryan White HIV/AIDS, and Rural Health.71
The FY2026 LHHS omnibus provided $8.9 billion in discretionary budget authority for HRSA.
This was $929 million (+11.6%) more than the discretionary funding level under the FY2025 fullyear CR, and $2.8 billion (+46.7%) more than the FY2026 President’s budget request.
The FY2026 President’s budget, House committee bill, and Senate committee bill proposed
divergent approaches to funding several major HRSA programs. Ultimately, for all of these
programs, the prior year funding levels were sustained or increased in the FY2026 LHHS
omnibus:
•
•
•
•
The Healthy Start program is aimed at improving pregnancy-related health
outcomes. The FY2026 LHHS omnibus funding level for Healthy Start was the
same as FY2024, FY2025, and what was proposed by the Senate committee bill
($145 million). The FY2026 President’s Budget request and the House committee
bill had proposed to eliminate funding for this program.72
The Title X Family Planning grants support access to family planning and
preventive health services at health care clinics. The same level of funding that
was enacted for FY2024 and FY2025 was provided in the FY2026 LHHS
omnibus and proposed by the Senate committee bill ($286 million). The FY2026
President’s Budget request and the House committee bill proposed to eliminate
funding for this program.73
The Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education program helps
freestanding, children’s hospitals pay for graduate medical education programs
that train resident physicians and dentists. The FY2026 LHHS omnibus provided
$395 million for this program, a 1.3% increase relative to FY2024 and FY2025
and the same amount that was proposed by the FY2026 House committee bill.
The Senate committee bill proposed funding the program at prior year levels
($390 million), while the FY2026 President’s Budget request proposed to
eliminate funding for the program.
The Ryan White HIV/AIDS programs provide primary medical care,
medications, and support services, for low-income people with HIV.74 FY2026
LHHS omnibus maintained the same $2.6 billion overall funding level and
programmatic funding as FY2024 and FY2025, which was what the FY2026
Senate committee bill proposed. The FY2026 President’s Budget proposed to
71 HRSA, Focus Areas, https://www.hrsa.gov/about/focus-areas.
72 The House committee report accompanying the FY2026 LHHS committee bill noted that “mandatory funding
available for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program continues to increase and
will exceed $600,000,000 in fiscal year 2026. The MIECHV program supports pregnant women and parents with
young children who live in communities that face greater risk and barriers to achieving positive maternal and child
health outcomes. Therefore, consistent with the fiscal year 2026 budget request, the Committee does not recommend
separate discretionary funding for the Healthy Start program.” (H.Rept. 119-271, p. 51)
73 The agency budget justification proposed eliminating this and other programs “in an effort to streamline the
bureaucracy, reset the proper balance between federal and state responsibilities, and save taxpayer funds.” See FY2026
Administration for a Healthy America Congressional Justification, pp. 365-368, https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/
files/fy-2026-aha-cj.pdf. Other President’s budget materials noted that, through this program, taxpayer funds may go to
“nonprofits that are not aligned with several Administration priorities.” See The President’s FY2026 Discretionary
Budget Request, May 2, 2025, p. 11, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BUDGET-2026-BUD/pdf/BUDGET-2026BUD.pdf).
74 HRSA, Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, https://ryanwhite.hrsa.gov/.
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•
eliminate Part F programs under Ryan White, which would have reduced the
overall Ryan White funding level by $74 million (-2.9%) relative to the prior year
levels. The House proposed to further eliminate Parts C and D as well as Ending
the HIV/AIDS Epidemic (EHE) funding. This would have reduced the overall
funding level by $525 million (-20.4%).75
The Rural Health programs at HRSA build health care capacity in rural areas.
The FY2026 LHHS omnibus included new funding for Rural Hospital Provider
Assistance ($25 million).76 This funding originated in the FY2026 House
committee bill, which proposed $100 million for this activity. The accompanying
committee report explained that this new funding was for HRSA “to administer a
formula grant program to support hospitals at the low end of the wage index
serving residents in States with the highest poverty rates. By focusing limited
resources on areas with the greatest demonstrated need, the Committee seeks to
ensure sustained access to quality health care providers for these communities.”77
No funding for this activity was included in the FY2026 President’s Budget or
the Senate committee bill.
The FY2026 LHHS omnibus also included dozens of new statutory line items for certain HRSA
activities under the Health Workforce, Maternal and Child Health, Ryan White HIV/AIDS
Program, and Rural Health Headings. In general, these types of line items had previously been
specified in the explanatory statement only, but were incorporated into the law itself by reference
for FY2026.78
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
The NIH is the largest federal funder of health and medical research. NIH consists of 27 separate
institutes and centers, 24 of which fund research programs in coordination with the Office of the
Director. NIH also houses the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a
separate HHS operating division focused on bolstering health innovation. Over 80% of NIH’s
budget funds grants and other awards to support research conducted by nonfederal institutions,
such as universities, medical centers, and small businesses.
The FY2026 LHHS omnibus provided NIH (including ARPA-H) with $47.3 billion in
discretionary budget authority and $1.4 billion in PHS evaluation tap transfers, for a combined
total funding level of $48.7 billion.79 This total funding level is an increase of $415 million
75 The FY2026 President’s budget proposed to eliminate AIDS Dental Services, Education and Training Centers, and
Special Programs of National Significance (FY2026 Administration for a Healthy America Congressional Justification,
pp. 23-24, https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fy-2026-aha-cj.pdf). The FY2026 House committee bill proposed to
eliminate those same three programs, plus Early Intervention Program (Part C), Children, Youth, Women, and Families
(Part D), and funding from the Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic (EHE) Initiative ((H.Rept. 119-271, pp. 333-334).
76
Total funding for Rural Health Programs in the LHHS omnibus was $418 million, an increase of $53 million
(+14.6%) relative to FY2024 and FY2025.
77 H.Rept. 119-271, p. 60.
78 The statutory text enacted funding under these headings with reference to the purposes and in the amounts specified
in the “Final Bill”’ column in the “Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026’” table in the explanatory statement. The relevant part of this table for these
funding amounts is in Congressional Record, vol. 172, no. 15, book II, January 22, 2026, p. H1633-H1635.
79 NIH also receives some appropriations outside of the LHHS act, including appropriations for environmental health
research in the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act and a mandatory
funding authority for type 1 diabetes research. These other sources of funding are not summarized here. For more
information, see CRS Report R43341, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Funding: FY1996-FY2026 Request.
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(+0.9%) compared to the FY2025 full-year CR funding levels. It is also $19.4 billion more than
(+66.3%) the FY2026 President’s budget proposal ($29.3 billion).
With regard to specific NIH components, the largest FY2026 enacted increase relative to FY2024
and FY2025 (when accounting for directed transfers) was for the National Institute of
Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS; +7.7%, +$201 million); the largest FY2026 enacted
decrease was for the NIH Office of the Director (OD; -5.0%, -$130 million). These changes in
large part reflect a shift in funding for the Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Act
(P.L. 117-79) implementation from the OD to NINDS.80 The FY2026 LHHS omnibus included
new statutory text specifying the funding levels for certain programs. For example, the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases appropriation included a new set-aside of $270
million for research to develop universal flu vaccines and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development appropriation included a set-aside of $63
million for the Implementing a Maternal health and Pregnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone
(IMPROVE) Initiative. Prior to FY2026, these amounts were directed in the explanatory
statement accompanying NIH appropriations, but not in the appropriations law text itself.81
Grants Policy Changes
The FY2026 President’s budget request also proposed several changes to NIH’s grants policies,
which were not fully adopted in the FY2026 LHHS omnibus. One proposal was a 15% cap on the
amount of NIH grant funds that can pay for indirect costs (also called facilities and administrative
(F&A) costs), which are expenses that are not specific to a research project and that maintain the
infrastructure and administrative support for federally funded research.82 The FY2026 request
also proposed to eliminate a recurring appropriations provision that prohibits HHS from
modifying NIH indirect cost rate policies. Neither of these proposals was enacted in the FY2026
LHHS omnibus.83
Another FY2026 President’s budget proposal would have continued an FY2025 Administration
policy to reserve half of NIH’s budget for multiyear grant awards.84 Prior to FY2025, NIH
typically committed research grants to researchers for several-year “project periods,” but actually
awarded funds for those grants on a year-by-year basis as noncompetitive continuations of the
grants. In FY2025, NIH shifted to funding more awards under a multiyear approach that fully
funded those grants up front for all years of the project period. Compared to FY2024, NIH
awarded fewer individual research grants in FY2025 (despite a similar overall funding
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