Final fiscal year 2023 round up; wins in the year-end omnibus

In late December, the 117th Congress passed their omnibus funding bill for fiscal year 2023 (FY23) after months of negotiations. Excitingly, the final bill includes modest increases for our global funding priorities. These updated funding levels for tuberculosis, nutrition, and global education will make an enormous difference in the fight against global poverty.

The chart below features the funding history of each of our priorities, and the asks that we’ve been advocating for since last spring. Our consistent lobbying for the Global Fund paid off, with our $2 billion request being upheld by Congress. We also gained an increase of $23.5 million for USAID Tuberculosis programs, up to $394.5 million. Although that falls well below our goal of $1 billion, the increase shows that Congress understands the importance of TB funding and year on year – we’ve seen consistent increases to the bilateral TB funding line. The maternal and child health and nutrition accounts also saw significant increases. $160 million was designated specifically for nutrition. Finally, USAID basic education funding increased to $970 million, a significant increase from both last year and the Senate’s original FY23 suggestion. 

We began our FY23 advocacy last March, and your tireless work throughout the year led us to these crucial funding increases. While we’ve made some progress, COVID-19, climate change, and conflict have put our global health and learning goals further out of reach. We need continued commitment from Congress in FY24 to truly address the massive scale of these issues. 

While we saw some real wins in our foreign aid funding priorities, unfortunately, our policy goals were not enacted by the final bill. The Child Tax Credit, End TB Now Act, and READ Act Reauthorization Act did not make it into the final omnibus, even after incredible advocacy by our RESULTS grassroots and partners. Volunteers in key states were contacting their members of Congress right down to the wire, ensuring they heard our priorities. By refusing to include these bills, Congress has failed to support the policies that have the greatest impact on the most marginalized communities at home and abroad. But, RESULTS advocates will continue to push forward these policies in 2023– especially as we start the new “Set the Agenda” campaign to get face to face meetings with elected officials!

As you get to know the 118th Congress, we have an opportunity to build on our work from 2022. This spring, we’ll reintroduce our global legislation that continues to focus on equity and impact. And by February, RESULTS will start to take action on FY24 appropriations to urge congress to fully fund our global anti-poverty priorities. Your commitment to increasing the political will to end poverty is more important than ever, and the FY23 omnibus brings us a step closer to providing adequate levels of funding for global health and education.