Congress Gets a Belated Start on Fiscal Year 2023 Budget

Under the normal federal budget appropriations process, both chambers of Congress should have produced a budget resolution to set the framework and overall spending limits for the fiscal year 2023 budget by April 15th. That deadline was not met, but on Wednesday June 8th the House finally voted to allow the Appropriations Committee to start their appropriations work. The timeline for the Senate Appropriations Committee remains uncertain. But considering the 4th of July holiday and August recess, Congress will have a very limited amount of time to move the appropriations bills through both Chambers before the October 1 start of the next fiscal year. Aside from a potential government shutdown, this also means there will be much less time for Congress to consider other pieces of legislation, like the GFOA priority to restore tax-exempt advance refunding. No matter what happens with the appropriations process, as we enter the final months of the 117th, GFOA’s FLC will be providing members with a toolkit to help you understand our legislative priorities and how you can still help move the needle on these critical issues.

Further, we will be following the budget process closely because if Congress does not complete the budget appropriations process in time, then it might have to pass a continuing resolution to temporarily fund the government at 2022 levels. This could also impact new grant programs, like those created under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. We will continue to monitor and provide updates as they arise.