FY23 Appropriations Process Continued

Over the past month, Members of Congress have accepted hundreds, if not thousands, of “programmatic funding” requests from local constituent organizations. These requests are not for congressionally directed spending (i.e. “earmarks”), but rather to support specific line items within the annual budget for competitive grant opportunities. Youth Collaboratory and its national and local partners have already met with dozens of lawmakers, and submitted programmatic request forms,  supporting our collective FY23 funding priorities. We request that Congress appropriate the following funding amounts: $130 million for Youth Mentoring Grants (YMG), $278 million for the Youth Homeless Demonstration Program (YHDP), and $300 million for Runaway and Homeless Youth programs (RHY).

Key public policy takeaways for the coming month:

• The opportunity to submit programmatic requests to Members of Congress is closing soon – if you would like to advocate in support of these, or other federal funding priorities, please visit the website for your member of Congress and follow the ‘programmatic requests’ instructions. Every office has a different deadline and submission form. Most have deadlines near the end of April.
• House Appropriations Chair, Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-3), is planning to move the 12 annual spending bills through the chamber by this summer. House Appropriations Subcommittees are in the process of hosting a series of hearings focused on budget requests for FY23.
• President Biden and Democrats continue their attempts to rekindle major pieces of the Build Back Better plan. The original plan included substantial increases to housing and rental assistance programs.  However, any renewed legislation faces incredibly stiff political headwinds that will only swell the closer we approach the 2022 midterms. 
• Congress has (mostly) agreed to a $10 billion COVID-19 relief bill, however, the legislation has stalled due to a dispute on border policy. The bill would support restaurants, COVID testing and treatment, as well as research for future COVID variants. 

For more updates, please keep an eye on Youth Collaboratory’s Public Policy blog for the latest as Congress jumps into the appropriations process all over again.