FY17 LHHS Full Committee Markup Bill Summary

Press Release

The fiscal year 2017 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill provides a total of $163.8 billion. This figure includes $161.9 billion in discretionary funding as well as $1.96 billion in cap adjustment funding, a $437 million increase, to prevent waste, fraud, abuse and improper payments in the Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security programs.

U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, said:

"This is a bipartisan bill in a Republican majority, but I am very glad that Senator Blunt and I were able to work together under very tight budget caps to protect and expand critical investments in students, workers, women, families, and the economy. I am especially proud that this bill doesn't include a single new damaging policy rider. This isn't the last step in this process, and I am hopeful that Democrats and Republicans can work together to build on our bipartisan budget deal and restore additional investments in defense and non-defense priorities, which would allow us to improve this bill with additional resources for education and other priorities. But this bill is a good first step and a strong floor for continued bipartisan work."

U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Vice Chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement:

"Thank you Chairman Blunt and Ranking Member Murray for your excellent work leading this Subcommittee. Your cooperation with each other and the members of the Subcommittee has resulted in a strong bipartisan bill -- the first bipartisan Labor-HHS bill in seven years, and the ninth bipartisan bill the Committee will report this year. From the National Institutes of Health (NIH) curing diseases and finding new treatments, to the Social Security Administration making sure Americans get the benefits they earned, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stopping health care fraud and waste, the bill meets compelling human needs, invests in discovery and protects vulnerable populations. So I appreciate the tremendous efforts of Chairman Blunt, Ranking Member Murray and both of your staffs, not letting hard funding choices or contentious riders get in the way of progress. I am so pleased that the bill re-establishes year-round Pell grants for roughly one million students. I hear support for year-round Pell in every corner of my state -- from Johns Hopkins to community colleges in Western Maryland and on the Eastern Shore. I've heard from school administrators, presidents and students that flexibility with Pell grants can make or break it for students."

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