Division B — OTHER MATTERS
Division Overview
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.
Titles
Title Summary
Title I temporarily continues U.S. Compact of Free Association assistance and federal programs for the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and, for federal programs and services, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). It also lengthens statutory deadlines for the Department of the Interior to issue certain regulations under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. The only new appropriation is a short-term, pro rata extension of existing Compact grant activity for the FSM; no fixed dollar figure is stated in the title.
Spending Breakdown
| Line Item | Amount | Purpose |
| Compact grant and other financial assistance (FSM), secs. 211, 212, and 215 | Pro rata share of the FY2023 appropriation for those activities (dollar amount not specified) | Continues FY2023-level grant and financial assistance for Oct. 1–Nov. 17, 2023, with FSM consent |
| Federal programs and services (FSM and RMI), secs. 131, 132, and 221(a) | No new appropriation stated | Continues FY2023-authorized federal programs and services until a new agreement with the applicable country enters into force |
| ISDEAA regulatory deadline extension (sec. 2102) | None | Amends deadlines only; no funding |
Notable Sections
- Sec. 2101(a) — Short, dated bridge (Oct. 1–Nov. 17, 2023) for FSM Compact economic assistance, funded at a pro rata slice of the FY2023 appropriation rather than a newly negotiated amount.
- Sec. 2101(b) — Open-ended continuation of specified federal programs and services for both the FSM and the RMI until successor Federal programs and services agreements take effect, contingent on mutual consent. This is broader in duration than the grant extension in subsection (a).
- Sec. 2102 — Extends Interior’s deadlines under 25 U.S.C. 5373(a) to promulgate regulations: from 21 months to 38 months, and from 30 months to 50 months. No new program or spending restriction; it only delays rulemaking.
Plain English
This title keeps existing U.S. aid and federal services to Micronesia (and related services to the Marshall Islands) from lapsing for a short period, and gives the government more time to finish certain tribal self-determination rules.
Title Summary
Title II is a short-term extension of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorities that were set to expire on September 30, 2023. It authorizes funding for FAA operations, airport grants, navigation equipment, research, weather reporting, and small-community air service for October 1 through December 31, 2023, and extends related taxes and Airport and Airway Trust Fund spending authority. It does not create new programs; it continues existing aviation authorities, mostly through December 31, 2023.
Spending Breakdown
Amounts below are authorizations for October 1–December 31, 2023, not full-year appropriations.
| Line Item | Amount | Purpose |
| FAA operations | $2,995,027,322 | FAA operating expenses for the three-month period |
| Airport Improvement Program | $842,076,502 | Airport planning and development grants; obligatable through September 30, 2024, and available until expended, subject to limits in appropriation acts |
| Air navigation facilities and equipment | $740,273,224 | Air navigation facilities and equipment |
| Supplemental discretionary airport funds | $140,401,803 | Additional discretionary airport grant funds for the same period |
| Essential Air Service | $89,191,486 | Subsidized air service to eligible small communities |
| Research, engineering, and development | $64,098,360 | FAA research, engineering, and development |
| Weather reporting programs | $9,803,278 | Aviation weather reporting programs |
| Airports not receiving sufficient service | $2,513,661 | Support for airports not receiving sufficient air service |
| Sum of stated authorizations | $4,883,385,636 | Total of the dollar amounts written into this title |
For apportionments only, the FAA is directed to calculate Airport Improvement Program shares as if the fiscal year 2024 total were $3,350,000,000, then reduce those amounts by 75 percent so about one quarter is distributed during this extension. That $3,350,000,000 figure is a calculation base, not a separate appropriation.
Notable Sections
- Partial-year formula (Sec. 2201): Airport grant apportionments are annualized and then cut by 75 percent, matching a three-month extension rather than a full reauthorization.
- Broad authority extensions (Sec. 2202): Extends expiring authorities through December 31, 2023 (or to January 1, 2024), including war-risk insurance, unmanned-aircraft test ranges and special UAS authority, airport hazard mitigation, remote-tower and airport-property pilot programs, consumer-protection and disability advisory bodies, the aviation consumer advocate, contract weather observers, and eligibility rules tied to Essential Air Service mileage adjustments. Also continues treatment of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, and Midway Island Airport.
- Commercial space “learning period” (Sec. 2202(k)): Extends, to January 1, 2024, the limit on certain FAA safety regulations for commercial human spaceflight occupants.
- Taxes and trust fund (Subtitle B): Extends aviation fuel taxes, passenger and cargo ticket taxes, and fractional-ownership fuel-tax rules through December 31, 2023. Authority to spend from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund runs through January 1, 2024.
- Counter-UAS sunset (Sec. 2221): Replaces the Homeland Security Act’s “four years after enactment” termination for authority to protect certain facilities and assets from unmanned aircraft with a fixed end date of November 18, 2023—earlier than the December 31, 2023 date used for the FAA programs in this title.
Plain English
For the last three months of 2023, this title keeps airport grants, air traffic operations, and flights to small communities going, and keeps aviation taxes in place, while giving homeland-security counter-drone authority a shorter deadline than the rest of the FAA extension.
Title Summary
Title III of Division B (H.R. 5860) is not a full-year HHS appropriations title. It reauthorizes FDA animal-drug and generic animal-drug user fees for fiscal years 2024–2028 and provides short extensions, through November 17, 2023, of several public-health, Medicaid, and human-services authorities and mandatory funding streams. Industry user fees support FDA review of animal drugs; the extenders cover community health centers, the National Health Service Corps, teaching health center graduate medical education, special diabetes programs, emergency-response authorities, Medicaid DSH timing, and selected child and family and adolescent-education programs.
Spending Breakdown
| Line Item | Amount | Purpose |
| Animal drug user fees | $33,500,000 total revenue each of FY 2024–2028 | Industry fees for FDA review of new and supplemental animal drug applications and related submissions (not a taxpayer appropriation) |
| Generic new animal drug user fees | $25,000,000 total revenue each of FY 2024–2028 (was $18,336,340) | Industry fees to expedite review of generic animal drugs; includes abbreviated applications, sponsor fees, and product fees |
| Generic investigational new animal drug file fee | $50,000 per qualifying request or first submission | New fee to open, or first use after Oct. 1, 2023, a generic investigational file |
| Community health centers | $526,027,397 | Mandatory funding for Oct. 1, 2023–Nov. 17, 2023 |
| National Health Service Corps | $40,767,123 | Mandatory funding for the same period |
| Teaching health centers that operate GME programs | $16,635,616 | Mandatory funding for the same period |
| Special Diabetes Program (Type I) | $19,726,027 | Funding for Oct. 1, 2023–Nov. 17, 2023, available until expended |
| Special Diabetes Program for Indians | $19,726,027 | Same period and availability |
| Child and family services (SSA title IV-B) | Such sums as may be necessary | Continue FY 2023 activities through Nov. 17, 2023 |
| Sexual Risk Avoidance Education | Pro rata portion of the FY 2023 appropriation (amount not specified here) | Extend the program through Nov. 17, 2023 |
| Personal Responsibility Education Program | Pro rata portion of the FY 2023 appropriation (amount not specified here) | Extend the program through Nov. 17, 2023 |
| Medicaid Improvement Fund | Reduced from $7,000,000,000 to $6,357,117,810 | Lowers the fund balance; functions as a financing change alongside the other Medicaid provision |
Notable Sections
- ADUFA and AGDUFA reauthorization (Secs. 2301–2316). Five-year reauthorizations (effective Oct. 1, 2023; sunset Oct. 1, 2028, with reporting through Jan. 31, 2029). Fee-funded work includes implementation of U.S.–EU and U.S.–UK mutual recognition agreements for pharmaceutical manufacturing inspections. Animal-drug fees add an operating-reserve adjustment (target reserves step down from 22 weeks in FY 2025 to 16 weeks in FY 2028, with a 12-week floor).
- New generic file fee and fee mix (Sec. 2312). Creates the $50,000 generic investigational file fee and shifts the generic fee split to 20 percent applications/file fees, 40 percent sponsor fees, and 40 percent product fees. Workload adjustments are capped at 25 percent. Minor-use or minor-species indications can receive a waiver or reduction.
- Genomic-alteration fee exemption (Sec. 2303(d)). Animal-drug sponsor, establishment, and product fees do not apply when the application involves intentional genomic alteration of an animal intended to produce a human drug, device, or biological product already subject to other FDA user fees.
- Short public-health extenders (Subtitle B). Community health centers, the National Health Service Corps, teaching health center GME, and both special diabetes programs are funded only through November 17, 2023—a partial-year patch, not full-year funding.
- Emergency authorities (Subtitle C). Extends through November 17, 2023, authority for certain National Disaster Medical System appointments, temporary reassignment of state and local personnel during a public health emergency, and the national advisory committees on children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities in disasters. No new money is provided.
- Medicaid DSH delay (Sec. 2341). Delays scheduled Medicaid disproportionate-share hospital allotment reductions so they begin November 18, 2023, rather than October 1, 2023, and then apply through FY 2027. The title does not state the dollar size of those reductions.
- Medicaid Improvement Fund cut (Sec. 2342). Reduces the fund from $7,000,000,000 to $6,357,117,810.
- Human-services extensions (Subtitle E). Continues child and family services and both the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education program and the Personal Responsibility Education Program on a short, mostly pro-rata basis through November 17, 2023. Those two education programs are often debated because one emphasizes avoiding sexual risk and the other is a broader personal-responsibility education program; this title extends both without rewriting them.
Plain English
For about six weeks into fiscal year 2024, this title keeps community clinics, some health-workforce and diabetes programs, and selected family and youth programs running, has animal-drug makers keep paying FDA review fees for five years, and briefly puts off scheduled Medicaid cuts to hospitals that serve many low-income patients.
Title Summary
Title IV does not fund any agency, bureau, or program. Section 2401 directs that the budgetary effects of this division not be entered on statutory or Senate PAYGO scorecards and not be estimated for certain discretionary-cap, appropriations-allocation, and PAYGO classification purposes.
Spending Breakdown
| Line Item | Amount | Purpose |
| No appropriations or rescissions | None specified | Scorekeeping and enforcement exemptions only; the title contains no dollar amounts |
Notable Sections
- Sec. 2401(a) — Excludes this division’s budgetary effects from both PAYGO scorecards under section 4(d) of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, so those effects do not count toward statutory PAYGO sequestration calculations.
- Sec. 2401(b) — Likewise excludes those effects from Senate PAYGO scorecards maintained under section 4106 of H. Con. Res. 71 (115th Congress).
- Sec. 2401(c) — Notwithstanding ordinary scorekeeping rules (Rule 3 of the Budget Scorekeeping Guidelines in the joint explanatory statement accompanying Conference Report 105–217, and section 250(c)(8) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985), the division’s effects shall not be estimated for: (1) section 251 discretionary spending limits; (2) a section 302(a) allocation to the Committee on Appropriations under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974; or (3) treatment as included in an appropriation Act under section 3(4)(C) of the Statutory PAYGO Act of 2010.
- The title creates no new program and imposes no program restriction. Its effect is to wall this division off from ordinary budget-enforcement scorekeeping.
Plain English
This title does not spend money; it tells budget scorekeepers not to count this division against PAYGO rules or certain spending caps and appropriations allocations.