Last week, the White House sent to Congress its budget proposals for the 2024 fiscal year that begins on October 1. This action starts the annual budget and appropriations process that is supposed to lead to passage of 12 appropriations bills.
Split control of the House and Senate will make it difficult for Congress to reach agreement on how much to spend next year on defense and non-defense priorities, let alone enact any of the separate spending bills. Commentators are already predicting that federal lawmakers will be forced once again to pass a stopgap spending measure called a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the federal government open into the fall and perhaps the full fiscal year.
Use of a CR can impact the work of many nonprofits by limiting funding. In recent years, Congress enacted spending laws that included billions in direct funding for specific projects and programs run by charitable nonprofits or governments in local communities. However, these direct spending decisions – known as “earmarks” – can’t be included in a Continuing Resolution, so the fate of spending bills can have a significant impact on the ability of thousands of organizations to serve their communities.
Further limiting the benefit of earmarks, the House last week released a new policy on Community Project Funding (the House term for earmarks), banning earmarks by three subcommittees (Defense, Labor-HHS, and Financial Services-General Government). The Labor-HHS appropriations bill has historically been a major vehicle for direct funding to charitable nonprofits. The new rules also limit earmarks to half of one percent of discretionary spending, down from one percent this current fiscal year. See Guidance for Community Project Funding for more information. The Senate rules do not match the new House approach, meaning a showdown is looming.
From Nonprofit Champion
