Federal Update

Federal Update

March 11, 2022

The Federal Relations team continues to monitor the finalization of the FY 2022 omnibus spending bill. Over the next few days, congress is expected to pass a $1.5 trillion spending bill that would fund the government for the rest of Fiscal Year 2022. The bill would provide $730 billion for non-defense discretionary spending, allocating:

• $45 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an increase of $2.25 billion over the enacted level for FY 2021. Funds are intended to support a wide range of biomedical and behavioral research.
  
• $1 billion to establish theProposed Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), which is a new initiativewithin the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to advance scientific research for diseases such as ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Alzheimer’s Disease, diabetes, and cancer.
  
• $8.84 billion for the National Science Foundation (NSF), an increase of $351 million over the enacted level for FY 2021. It establishes a new Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships to help the United States stay ahead of international competition in key areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and climate science.

Additionally, the bill includes funding for the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Research, Development, Test and Evaluation program. The program’s enacted funding level for FY 2022 is $9.091 million, 2% more than it was for FY 2021.

There are also funds for the National Security Education program, with a $6 million increase-and a total of $22 million-for the Language Flagship Program. This is important as Indiana University is home to more Language Flagships than any other University. 

For more information on the FY 2022 Spending Bill, visit H.R. 2471