Congress was back from recess last week and the Appropriations Committees have hit the ground running, particularly in the House, where the deadline for members to submit their requests is March 24th, 2023. This week, in anticipation of the release of the President’s budget on Thursday, March 9th, 2023, the House Appropriations Committee will hold member hearings for many of the Subcommittees.
House Appropriations Committee Chair Kay Granger (R-TX) released guidance on Community Project Funding, formerly known as earmarks, last week. This funding, capped at 1 percent of the overall discretionary budget, is requested by members and directly funds nonprofits and other organizations in their districts; many CWLA members have received this funding in past years, providing more resources to serve families and children.
Politico reported that this year, earmarks will not be allowed on the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS) Appropriations Bill, which covers many of the programs and organizations providing child welfare and other child-focused services. They will also be blocked from the Financial Services and Defense bills.
House Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said she is “saddened” by the earmark ban for those three bills. Excluding those measures decreases “opportunities for members to help people in their districts and to meet urgent needs directly,” she said. Representative DeLauro is also Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Labor HHS Subcommittee.
The Senate Labor-HHS Subcommittee is still accepting earmark requests and is encouraging programs and organizations to submit those requests to their Senators, as it’s possible that they may be able to get some of those projects funded in the final bill, should they manage to reach a funding agreement this year. Senators post their funding request forms on their websites, and each office has its own deadline for requests.
