FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 16, 2019
Congress Reaches Bicameral FY 2020 Spending Agreement, Includes Increases for Indian Health Service Budget and 5-month Extension of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians
On Monday, December 16, 2019, the House and Senate released the final Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 appropriations package for all twelve discretionary appropriations bills. The roughly $1.3 trillion spending deal provides $738 billion in defense funding and $632 billion for all non-defense accounts for FY 2020. For the Interior budget, which funds the Indian Health Service (IHS), Bureau of Indian Affairs, and other agencies, Congress allocated $35.989 billion overall; for the Labor, Health and Human Services (Labor-HHS) budget, which funds agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Congress allocated $184.9 billion overall.
The spending package also includes a
short-term extension of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI) for a period of 5 months, through May 22, 2020
. NIHB has been heavily advocating for a long-term 5 year reauthorization of SDPI before the program expires this Friday, December 20; however, with negotiations ongoing regarding the legislative vehicle for long-term reauthorization of SDPI, another short-term extension was necessary to avoid program expiration. NIHB continues to stress to lawmakers the undue challenges and problems with short-term extensions, and will continue to strongly advocate for long-term reauthorization of SDPI.
The House and Senate will be considering the FY 2020 spending bills under two packages, or "minibuses." The first minibus is filed under
H.R. 1158
and includes the following appropriations bills:
- Defense
- Homeland Security
- Commerce-Justice-Science
- Financial Services
The second minibus is filed under
H.R. 1865
and includes the following appropriations bills:
- Agriculture-FDA
- Labor-HHS
- Energy-Water
- Interior-Environment
- State-Foreign Operations
- Transportation-HUD
- Military Construction -VA
- Legislative Branch
House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) announced on Monday that the House of Representatives will be voting on both spending minibuses on Tuesday, December 17, 2019. The Senate will subsequently consider the packages later this week in time for the President's signature before Congress recesses for the remainder of the calendar year on Friday December 20, 2019. Both chambers of Congress and the White House have signaled support for the final spending agreement which will fund the federal government for the remainder of FY 2020 (through September 30, 2020).
Funding for the Indian Health Service
NIHB has conducted an analysis of the FY 2020 spending package for IHS. Overall, the deal increases IHS funding by 4% above the FY 2019 enacted level, to $6.047 billion. It includes line item increases for the majority of IHS accounts,
including a substantial boost to funds for 105(l) lease obligations to $125 million
, which is $89 million above the FY 2019 enacted level.
The budget also includes a new
$8 million line item for modernization of electronic health records (EHRs) and $5 million for nationalization of the Community Health Aide Program (CHAP)
. Unfortunately, the final totals for EHRs and CHAP are below the proposals in the FY 2020 President's Budget, which outlined $25 million for EHR modernization and $20 million for CHAP nationalization. In addition, the $25 million proposed in the President's Budget for HIV and Hepatitis C were not included in the final deal.
A more detailed list and comparison of several line item totals for IHS are provided below.
