On Thursday, June 23rd the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee held a markup on their FY2023 Appropriations bill, which includes a 13% increase over FY2022 spending levels. Despite emphasizing a commitment to bipartisan collaboration, the bill moved forward without any Republican support, due in part to the removement of prohibitions on federal dollars being spent on abortion.

According to the press release, the bill includes:

  • $873 million, an increase of $125 million, for the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant;
  • Increases for children’s and youth mental health in programs such as Project AWARE, the Children’s Mental Health program, the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative, and Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health.
  • $7.2 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, an increase of $1 billion above the FY 2022 enacted level;
  • $12.4 billion for Head Start, an increase of $1.4 billion above the FY 2022 enacted level;
  • $185 million for Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) State Grant and Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention programs, an increase of $24 million above the FY 2022 enacted level;
  • $82 million for Promoting Safe and Stable Families discretionary funding, including $20 million for Kinship Navigator Programs and almost $3 million for the Family First Prevention Services Clearinghouse.

The bill moves on to the full Appropriations Committee markup on June 30th, 2022.

The four top appropriators are still negotiating top line numbers, which means that the totals approved during the House process are very likely to change. The Senate has not announced a markup schedule at this time.