Non-Defense Funding Increases Would Help Undo Decade of Cuts, Invest in National Needs
End Notes
[1] In this paper, “House bills” refers to the 12 appropriations bills for fiscal year 2022 that the House Appropriations Committee approved (nine of which have passed the House). “Senate bills” refers to the three bills approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee and the text and explanatory statements for the remaining nine bills published by Senator Patrick Leahy, the committee chair.
[2] We exclude veterans’ medical care from the total because it is the largest program funded with non-defense appropriations (accounting for one-seventh of the total in 2021) and has been growing rapidly (67 percent between 2010 and 2021, adjusted for inflation) as Congress sought to fix shortfalls and improve care. Including this large and rapidly growing category would give an unrealistic impression of how most non-defense programs have been faring.
[3] These calculations — and those in the next paragraph — are made using the standard CBPP methodology for analyzing appropriations changes. This methodology excludes certain offsetting savings in order to focus on programmatic funding. It also adds several categories of funding exempted from the Budget Control Act caps or budget resolution limits. For more information, see the Appendix to David Reich and Katie Windham, “Boosts in Non-Defense Appropriations Needed Due to Decade of Cuts, Unmet Needs,” CBPP, March 25, 2021, https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/boosts-in-non-defense-appropriations-needed-due-to-decade-of-cuts-unmet.
[4] Chuck Marr et al., “Congress Needs to Take Two Steps to Fund the IRS for the Short and Long Term,” CBPP, February 1, 2022, https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/congress-needs-to-take-two-steps-to-fund-the-irs-for-the-short-and-long-term.
[5] This calculation excludes “program integrity” funding that is outside the budget resolution allocation and is available only for periodically reviewing certain disability and Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries’ eligibility.
[6] Kathleen Romig, “SSA Needs Large Funding Boosts Following Pandemic, Years of Underinvestment,” CBPP, February 3, 2022, https://www.cbpp.org/blog/ssa-needs-large-funding-boosts-following-pandemic-years-of-underinvestment.
[7] Sonya Acosta and Brianna Guerrero, “Long Waitlists for Housing Vouchers Show Pressing Unmet Need for Assistance,” CBPP, October 6, 2021, https://www.cbpp.org/research/housing/long-waitlists-for-housing-vouchers-show-pressing-unmet-need-for-assistance.
[8] Jabari Cook et al., “House Appropriations Bills Take Steps to Use the Federal Budget as a Tool for Antiracism,” CBPP, February 3, 2022, https://www.cbpp.org/research/house-appropriations-bills-take-steps-to-use-the-federal-budget-as-a-tool-for-antiracism.
[9] See, for example, House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education, “Ready or Not: U.S. Public Health Infrastructure,” February 24, 2021, appropriations.house.gov/events/hearings/ready-or-not-us-public-health-infrastructure; Trust for America’s Health, “The Impact of Chronic Underfunding on America’s Public Health System: Trends, Risks, and Recommendations, 2021,” May 2021, www.tfah.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021_PHFunding_Fnl.pdf.