Making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2024, and for other purposes.

Overview

Division A is not a normal spending bill for one department. It is a short-term continuing resolution (often called a “CR”) that keeps almost the entire federal government running into fiscal year 2024 by extending fiscal year 2023 funding laws. It covers all 12 regular appropriations areas—from Defense and Homeland Security to health, education, agriculture, and foreign aid—so agencies can keep operating until Congress passes full-year bills or the deadline hits.

The funding generally continues at the same rate as fiscal year 2023, with limits on starting new projects, plus a short list of exceptions and one large new disaster appropriation.

Total Spending

No single total is stated in this division. Most money is provided as “such amounts as may be necessary, at a rate for operations” equal to the fiscal year 2023 appropriations acts, not as a new grand total.

The clearest new dollar figure in the text is an extra $16 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund. Several other amounts are adjusted upward or downward from last year’s laws; those are listed below. A full-government dollar total cannot be calculated from this text alone.

This authority lasts until the earliest of: a full-year appropriation for that program, a fiscal year 2024 bill that drops the program, or November 17, 2023 (Section 106).

Key Funding Areas

Because this is a rate-based extension, the items below are the dollar amounts actually written into this division, not the full budgets of these agencies.

• FEMA Disaster Relief Fund: $16 billion extra for fiscal year 2024, available until spent — disaster response and recovery. Of that, $15.5 billion is for major disasters declared under the Stafford Act, and $2 million goes to the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General for audits and investigations of that fund. The text does not further split the remaining amount.
• Columbia-class submarine (Navy shipbuilding): up to $621.27 million may be used during this period for procurement of one Columbia-class submarine (the Ohio-replacement ballistic-missile submarine), even though normal CR rules block new or increased production.
• Office of Personnel Management, salaries and expenses: annual rate raised from $190.78 million to $219.08 million.
• FAA Facilities and Equipment: two figures in last year’s law are reset to $617 million (from $570 million) and $2.17 billion (from $2.22 billion). The shifts offset each other by $47 million; this text does not explain what each figure covers.
• Migration and Refugee Assistance (carried forward from a fiscal year 2023 supplemental heading): $915.05 million, down from $1.54 billion in the referenced text.
• International Disaster Assistance: $637.90 million, down from $937.90 million in the referenced text.
• National Science Foundation, Research and Related Activities (supplemental-style amount): $608.16 million, down from $818.16 million.
• A Commerce-Justice-Science provision (section 521(d)(1) of the fiscal year 2023 law): $122.57 million, down from $705.77 million. This division does not describe what that subsection funds.
• International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement: $74.996 million, down from $375.00 million.
• Rural water and waste disposal (supplemental-style amount): $60 million, down from $325 million. Rural community facilities: $25.3 million, down from $75.3 million.

Base agency budgets—Defense, Veterans Affairs, HHS, Education, and the rest—continue at fiscal year 2023 rates. Those full-year dollar totals are not restated in this division.

Notable Provisions

• No new starts, generally. Agencies may not start or restart projects that were not funded in fiscal year 2023. For Defense, the CR also blocks new production, higher production rates, and new multi-year buys that use advance procurement, unless a later law specifically allows them.
• “Most limited funding” rule. Agencies are told to take only the smallest funding step needed to keep existing work going, and not to rush out grants in a way that locks in full-year decisions before Congress finishes the regular bills.
• Furlough flexibility. Departments may shift civilian pay funding up to the level needed to avoid furloughs, but only after they have cut or delayed non-personnel administrative costs.
• Nutrition and farm programs protected at operating levels. WIC may be funded at the rate needed to keep people enrolled. The Commodity Supplemental Food Program may be funded to hold its current caseload. USDA farm ownership loans and rural rental assistance may be funded as needed to keep those programs working. Broader food-assistance activities under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 continue at the rate needed to maintain current-law levels.
• Mandatory payments mostly continue, including benefits whose funding was provided in the fiscal year 2023 appropriations acts. Payments due around the first of a month can still be made for up to 30 days after November 17, 2023. Exception: the “Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund” is carved out of that special continuation rule. The text does not say what that means in practice for veterans’ benefits.
• Disaster and insurance extensions. Besides the $16 billion, FEMA’s existing Disaster Relief Fund may be spent at the rate needed for response and recovery. The National Flood Insurance Program is extended through the November 17, 2023 date (and treated as if it never lapsed if this law is signed after September 30, 2023).
• Wildland firefighter pay. Interior and Forest Service wildfire funds may keep covering the federal wildland firefighter base-pay increase from the 2021 infrastructure law.
• Other short extensions. Livestock mandatory price reporting; a federal cybersecurity authority; certain Afghanistan-related authority from a 2022 supplemental; and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families–related activities under part A of title IV of the Social Security Act (and a related child-welfare provision). TANF-type activities are funded with “such sums as may be necessary,” not a fixed dollar amount.
• Parole Commission. A long-running 36-year authority is extended by 17 days (“36 years and 17 days”). The calendar end date is not spelled out in this text.
• Defense personnel statute. During this CR only, a two-year limit in 10 U.S.C. § 714(b)(2)(B) is applied as four years. The text does not name the position.
• Local D.C. budget. The District of Columbia may spend its own local funds at the rate in its fiscal year 2024 local budget act, not only at the fiscal year 2023 federal rate.
• Millennium Challenge Corporation. A board member whose term began September 16, 2019, may keep serving until March 31, 2024, or until a successor is appointed, whichever comes first.
• NASA cleanup. Older NASA space-operations funds from 2017 and 2018 laws stay available through fiscal year 2024 only to pay valid bills already incurred in fiscal years 2017–2019.
• Some fiscal year 2023 provisions are dropped or trimmed, including specified sections in the Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior, State, and Transportation-HUD laws, plus language on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve petroleum account and the Energy Department’s Title 17 loan-guarantee program. This division does not explain what those excluded sections did.
• Emergency budget labels. The $16 billion disaster amount, and certain amounts carried forward from last year’s supplementals, are tagged as emergency requirements for budget-law purposes. Emergency amounts are available only if the President also designates them and tells Congress.

Who Benefits

• Federal agencies and their workers, who can keep operating and, if necessary, be paid at a rate meant to avoid furloughs.
• People and communities hit by major disasters, through FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund and the extra $16 billion.
• Flood-insurance policyholders and communities in the National Flood Insurance Program, which is kept alive through the CR date.
• Low-income families using WIC, people in the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, and others in domestic food programs continued at current-law rates.
• Farmers seeking approved direct or guaranteed farm-ownership loans, and rural renters assisted through USDA rental assistance.
• Wildland firefighters whose base-pay increase can keep being funded.
• Service members, defense programs already underway, and veterans’ programs funded in the fiscal year 2023 Military Construction–VA law, which continue at last year’s rate—with the Toxic Exposures Fund treated differently from other mandatory payments.
• States, grantees, and beneficiaries of ongoing Labor, HHS, and Education programs, including TANF-related activities, though agencies are barred from front-loading full-year grant awards.
• Refugees, disaster-affected people abroad, and narcotics-control programs, at the reduced carryover amounts listed above—not at the higher figures in last year’s supplemental text.
• D.C. local programs, which can follow the District’s own fiscal year 2024 local budget.

Plain English Summary

This is a stopgap, not a new budget. It tells federal agencies: keep doing what you were already doing, at about last year��s pace, but don’t start new projects, and don’t spend as if the whole year is settled. The clock runs out on November 17, 2023, unless Congress passes real funding bills sooner. The one big new check in this text is $16 billion for FEMA disaster relief. A few programs get special permission to keep serving people without interruption—WIC, farm loans, rural rental aid, flood insurance, wildland firefighter raises, and work on one new Columbia-class submarine—while some supplemental-style foreign aid, science, and rural-water amounts are carried forward at lower dollar figures than last year’s text. If you get a federal paycheck, a disaster-aid check, food assistance, or flood insurance, this is the law that was meant to keep those going for about six weeks while Congress kept arguing over the full-year bills.

This division does not fund one department for a full year. It is the “other matters” package attached to a short-term government funding bill, and it mostly keeps aviation, health, and Pacific island programs running for a few weeks to a few months past September 30, 2023.

Overview

Division B of this bill (the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2024 and Other Extensions Act) is not a normal agency budget. It temporarily extends programs that were about to expire, renews industry fees that pay for Food and Drug Administration review of animal drugs, and makes a few Medicaid adjustments. The main beneficiaries are the Federal Aviation Administration and airport system, community health and diabetes programs, and U.S. partners in the Pacific.

Total Spending

There is no single total for this division. Dollar amounts that are written into the text add up to about $5.51 billion, but they cover different lengths of time, and several other programs are continued without a set dollar figure.

• Specified aviation amounts (October 1–December 31, 2023): about $4.88 billion
• Specified health amounts (October 1–November 17, 2023): about $622.9 million
• Open-ended extensions (pro rata or “such sums as necessary,” no dollar figure in the text): Compact of Free Association assistance, child and family services, and two teen education programs
• Industry user fees (not taxpayer appropriations): $33.5 million a year for animal drug reviews and $25 million a year for generic animal drug reviews, for fiscal years 2024 through 2028

No prior-year comparison was provided with the text. Where the bill itself changes an old number, that change is noted below.

Key Funding Areas

• FAA operations: $2.995 billion — day-to-day running of the Federal Aviation Administration for October 1 through December 31, 2023
• Airport Improvement Program: $842.1 million — grants for airport planning and construction for that same three-month period (calculated as if a full year were $3.35 billion, then cut to one quarter)
• Air navigation facilities and equipment: $740.3 million — air traffic control equipment and related facilities for those three months
• Supplemental airport discretionary funds: $140.4 million — extra airport grant money for the same period
• Essential Air Service: $89.2 million — subsidies that keep flights to small communities, plus $2.5 million for airports not getting enough service
• FAA research, engineering, and development: $64.1 million — aviation research for the three-month extension
• Weather reporting programs: $9.8 million — aviation weather reporting for that period
• Community health centers: $526.0 million — primary care clinics in underserved areas, only for October 1 through November 17, 2023
• National Health Service Corps: $40.8 million — scholarships and loan repayment for clinicians who work in shortage areas, for that same short period
• Teaching health center medical residencies: $16.6 million — doctor training in community-based clinics, for that period
• Special diabetes programs: $19.7 million for Type 1 diabetes research and $19.7 million for diabetes programs serving American Indians and Alaska Natives, each for October 1 through November 17, 2023

Notable Provisions

• Most health, human services, and Pacific island extensions run only through November 17, 2023. Most aviation authorities and aviation taxes run through December 31, 2023.
• Aviation fuel taxes, passenger ticket taxes, cargo taxes, and related trust-fund spending authority are extended so the Airport and Airway Trust Fund can keep collecting and spending money.
• Drone-related authorities are extended, including test ranges, special permissions for some unmanned aircraft, and a short extension—to November 18, 2023—of federal power to protect certain facilities from unmanned aircraft.
• The commercial spaceflight “learning period,” during which routine safety rules for paying human spaceflight participants stay limited, is extended to January 1, 2024.
• FDA animal-drug user fees are renewed for five years (fiscal years 2024–2028). Brand-name animal drug fees are set to raise $33.5 million a year. Generic animal drug fees rise from $18.3 million to $25 million a year, and a new $50,000 fee is added for opening or first using a generic investigational drug file.
• Scheduled cuts to Medicaid payments for hospitals that serve many low-income patients (disproportionate share hospital, or DSH, cuts) are delayed so they start November 18, 2023, instead of October 1, 2023. The dollar size of that delay is not stated.
• The Medicaid Improvement Fund is reduced from $7 billion to $6.36 billion, a cut of about $642.9 million.
• Deadlines for certain regulations under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act are lengthened (from 21 months to 38 months, and from 30 months to 50 months).
• Financial help and federal services under agreements with the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands continue for a short period, generally at a pro rata share of fiscal year 2023 funding. The text does not state a dollar amount.
• Child and family services, sexual risk avoidance education, and personal responsibility education continue through November 17, 2023, at a pro rata share of fiscal year 2023 levels. Exact dollars are not stated.
• The costs of this division are kept off statutory and Senate PAYGO scorecards, so they do not automatically trigger offsetting cuts under those budget rules.

Who Benefits

• Airline passengers, airports, air traffic control, and small communities that rely on subsidized flights
• Patients at community health centers, clinicians in shortage areas, and medical residents training in community clinics
• People with Type 1 diabetes, and American Indian and Alaska Native communities served by the Special Diabetes Program for Indians
• Animal drug companies, which pay fees in exchange for FDA review resources; livestock producers, veterinarians, and pet owners benefit indirectly if reviews move faster
• The Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, through continued grant aid and federal services
• Hospitals that serve large numbers of Medicaid and uninsured patients, which avoid DSH cuts for about six weeks
• Families served by child welfare programs, and youth served by the two extended education programs
• Disaster-response personnel and the advisory committees on children, older adults, and people with disabilities in disasters, whose authorities are extended through November 17, 2023

Plain English Summary

This is a stopgap, not a full budget. Congress was about to let a pile of programs expire at the end of September 2023, so this division hits pause. It keeps the FAA, airport grants, and flights to small towns funded through the end of December, and it keeps the ticket and fuel taxes that pay for those programs. It gives community health centers, the program that places doctors in shortage areas, diabetes research, and diabetes care for Native communities enough money to run through mid-November. It also lets U.S. aid and services for Micronesia and the Marshall Islands continue for a short time, renews the fees drug companies pay so FDA can review medicines for animals, and pushes back a Medicaid hospital payment cut by about six weeks. A lot of the dollar amounts are just a slice of last year’s funding, sized to the few weeks or months being covered.