House Budget Committee 2022 Year-End Report

Dec 23, 2022

2022 In Review

 

With more than 10 million jobs created since President Biden came into office, 2022 marked another historic year of progress, advancement, and job creation in America.

In fact, thanks to the leadership of President Biden and Congressional Democrats our nation has now more than recovered all the jobs lost during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, unemployment reached historic lows, American manufacturing surged, and we saw the best economy for American workers in decades. Workers earned higher wages, better benefits, and gained access to better jobs and increased opportunities across the country.

But this year also brought its share of serious economic challenges, from the continued impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic — seen in everything from supply chain issues to global inflation — to Russia’s war in Ukraine, which disrupted markets and pushed U.S. oil prices to their highest level in more than a decade.

Fortunately, our nation was well-positioned to face these unique challenges from a position of strength — in no small part thanks to House Democrats’ passage of the American Rescue Plan. This historic legislation jump-started our record-breaking economic recovery, created millions of jobs, and changed the course of the pandemic with an unprecedented vaccination effort.

This past year, House Budget Democrats worked hand-in-hand with the Biden Administration to lower costs for families and address some of the most important issues of our time. Budget Committee Democrats proudly played a critical role in enacting the Inflation Reduction Act, landmark legislation that will lower Americans’ health care costs, energy bills, and prescription drug costs, and take historic steps to tackle climate change and build a clean energy economy.

Throughout the year, Budget Committee Democrats were hard at work holding hearings, releasing reports, conducting oversight, and examining the policies and investments needed to ensure a complete and inclusive economic recovery and build an economy that works for working families, not just those at the top.

 

Chairman Yarmuth

House Budget Committee Democrats would like to thank Chairman John Yarmuth for his more than a decade of service on the House Budget Committee, including as Chairman of the Committee in the 116th and 117th Congresses, and as Ranking Member in the 115th Congress.

As Chairman, Yarmuth has shepherded landmark legislation through Congress — including the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act – to improve Americans’ lives, lower families’ costs, and protect our nation’s most vulnerable during uniquely challenging times. His work to reassert Congress’s constitutional power of the purse and prevent abuses of executive power and corruption was of critical importance during the first impeachment of former President Trump and included the successful enactment of reforms to increase transparency and oversight.

Chairman Yarmuth has elevated the Committee’s contributions to the Congress with hearings focused on the importance of strategic investments, such as investments in climate resilience, health care, and child care, to expand opportunities for working Americans and improve our nation’s fiscal outlook. Yarmuth has been a leading advocate for abolishing the debt ceiling, working to end the nonsensical political brinkmanship over the debt limit that threatens our economy and jeopardizes the full faith and credit of the United States.

As Chairman, John Yarmuth will be remembered for his steady leadership, his work to help our nation recover from an unprecedented pandemic and economic crisis, his commitment to investing in our country’s future and building a strong economy based on broadly shared prosperity, and for the warmth, kindness, and generosity he showed to his colleagues and staff.

 

2022 By The Numbers

9 Hearings

Why Congress Needs to Abolish the Debt Limit

Ensuring Women Can Thrive in a Post-Pandemic Economy

The President’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget

Department of Health and Human Services FY 2023 Budget

Department of Defense FY 2023 Budget

Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Priorities: Members’ Day

The Congressional Budget Office’s Budget and Economic Outlook

How the American Rescue Plan Saved Lives and the U.S. Economy

Examining the Powerful Impact of Investments in Early Childhood for Children, Families, and Our Nation’s Economy

19 Reports

The America COMPETES Act: House Democrats Strengthen Supply Chains & U.S. Economic Competitiveness

Why Congress Needs to Abolish the Debt Limit

The Debt Ceiling: An Explainer

Abolishing the Debt Limit is an Act of Fiscal Responsibility

Ensuring Women Can Thrive in a Post-Pandemic Economy

Biden Budget Reinvests in the Foundations of Our Nation’s Strength

President Biden’s Budget Strengthens Public Health and Expands Access to Health Care for All Americans

When Women Succeed, America Succeeds: Investing in Women’s Return to the Workforce

President Biden’s Budget Tackles the Climate Crisis and Other Long-Standing Environmental Challenges

President Biden’s Budget Invests in America’s Children

President Biden’s Budget Fulfills Our Sacred Obligation to Care for Our Veterans and Their Families

Creating Opportunity and Building Wealth in Rural America

FY23 Deeming Resolution: Supporting the Appropriations Process

The American Rescue Plan a Year Later: Relief, Recovery and Rebuilding

Changing the Course of Recovery: How the American Rescue Plan Saved America

Examining the Powerful Impact of Investments in Early Childhood for Children, Families, and Our Nation’s Economy

Helping Children Thrive Helps Everyone: Investments in Early Childhood Pay Off Over Time

Budgeting and the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990: An Explainer

A Win for the People and our Planet: How the Inflation Reduction Act Lowers Costs and Acts on Climate

 

President Biden’s FY 2023 Budget 

Congressional Democrats’ enactment of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan   helped get vaccines into arms, money and resources into Americans’ pockets, and children back to school. It also helped our nation make tremendous economic progress in a short period of time and spurred historic job creation.

While the 2021 American Rescue Plan remains one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in history, it was not enough to make up for a decade of chronic underinvestment in everything from health care and infrastructure to education and R&D. These deficits in our communities — compounded by lingering challenges from the pandemic and economic downturn — meant our work was far from over.

These pressing challenges demand a unified, comprehensive plan. President Biden’s Budget request for Fiscal Year 2023 built on the success of the American Rescue Plan and Congress’s enacted 2022 appropriations with responsible and pro-growth investments across every sector of government. These investments are   necessary to increase the productive capacity of our economy, lower costs for families, create more opportunities for more Americans, and strengthen our long-term economic recovery.

 

Highlights from President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget proposal:

  • Historic investments in education — from pre-k to higher education — including support for under-resourced schools and key investments in mental health
  • Strengthening our nation’s response to future public health crises, and driving innovation in biomedical research
  • Expanding access to health care and services, including transformative investments for mental health care and substance use disorder, and advancing maternal health
  • Boosting affordable housing production and increasing housing assistance to reduce homelessness and poverty
  • A historic increase in funding to tackle the climate crisis and support a clean energy economy
  • Making our economy more competitive by investing in infrastructure, small businesses, and domestic manufacturing
  • Ensuring our veterans have access to timely, world-class health care and other services
  • Increasing funding for the Department of Justice to safeguard civil rights, combat violent crime and gun trafficking, and invest in community violence prevention
  • Strengthening our national security and making global leadership a priority, including by funding NATO to counter Russian aggression
  • Strengthening our nation’s long-term fiscal health by reducing the deficit and making our tax system more equitable

Read the Budget Committee’s full report on President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget HERE.

 

"President Biden has proposed a responsible and compassionate budget that will build a better, stronger, more secure, and more inclusive nation for decades to come - all while lowering costs for American families, creating a fairer tax code, and improving our nation’s long-term economic outlook." - Chairman John Yarmuth

 

Appearing before the Budget Committee for a hearing on President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda Young said: “The Budget puts forward an economically and fiscally responsible path forward — addressing our country’s long-term fiscal challenges while making smart investments that will produce stronger growth and broadly shared prosperity for generations to come.”

The Committee also held hearings on President Biden’s Budget request with Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra and Department of Defense (DoD) Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chief Financial Officer Michael J. McCord.

“The Budget demonstrates the Administration’s commitment to reinvesting in public health, research, and development to drive growth and shared prosperity for all Americans,” said Secretary Becerra. “COVID-19 has shown that health inequities and insufficient Federal funding leave communities vulnerable to these crises. The Budget advances equity and helps ensure our programs serve people of color and other underserved communities with the opportunities promised to all Americans.”

 

    Additional reports on President Biden’s FY23 Budget:

     

    Economic Progress and Recovery 

    House Budget Committee Democrats held multiple hearings throughout the year to monitor our nation’s economic progress and continued recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

    At the beginning of the year, the committee held a hearing on ensuring women can thrive in the post-pandemic economy. Because women make up a disproportionate share of workers in the leisure, hospitality, health care, and education sectors, and because they often shoulder greater caregiving responsibilities than men, the pandemic’s twin health and economic crises continue to have an unequal impact on women. At the hearing, expert witnesses testified on what actions Congress could take to remedy these persistent disparities and help women reenter the workforce.

    “When it comes to labor supply, women’s labor force participation has stagnated in the United States since the early 1990s, after several decades of rapid growth,” said hearing witness Dr. Stefania Albanesi, an Economics Professor at the University of Pittsburg. “While there may be many factors that contributed to the United States falling behind, the economic research clearly points to family policies as the most important driver. Three policies in particular stand out: entitlements to paid parental leave, entitlements to flexible work schedules, and publicly provided child care.”

    When the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) came out with its new Budget and Economic Outlook — also known as the CBO “baseline” — the Committee invited CBO Director Phillip Swagel to testify on the updated 10-year economic projections. The lifesaving and life-changing impact of the American Rescue Plan was evident in the updated baseline:

    And, given that one of the most important investments we can make in the future of our nation is in our children, the Committee also called in expert witnesses for a hearing on how investments in early childhood more than pay off with benefits for children, families, and our entire economy.

    During the hearing, witnesses discussed policies proven to benefit children most, from nutrition programs like WIC and SNAP, to tax policies like the expanded and enhanced Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, to education policies like investments in high quality pre-k and child care. In recent years, the share of federal spending on the youngest Americans had been declining, but the American Rescue Plan played a key role in reversing this troubling trend. Read the report HERE.

     

    The American Rescue Plan: One Year Later

    The enactment of the American Rescue Plan marked a turning point in our nation’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. This historic legislation, spearheaded by Chairman Yarmuth, indisputably saved lives, rescued our economy, and is one of main reasons America’s economic recovery far outpaced that of most of our global competitors.

    The American Rescue Plan also positioned our nation to better weather unforeseen economic challenges of this past year — from  Russia’s war in Ukraine to global inflation and continued supply chain challenges.

    To mark one year since the passage of the American Rescue Plan, the Budget Committee held a hearing titled “How the American Rescue Plan Saved Lives and the U.S. Economy” and released multiple reports showing how this landmark legislation enabled a record-breaking economic recovery, created millions of jobs, helped city and state governments keep essential workers on payroll and make overdue investments, and slashed poverty.

    Sharon Parrott, President of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, testified: “Over the last 80 years or more, it might be difficult to think of a single piece of pre-pandemic legislation that’s more effective than the Rescue Plan at preventing poverty… One study at Columbia University estimated that the American Rescue Plan alone reduced annual poverty that year by more than 12 million people, including 5.6 million children, a reduction in child poverty of more than 50 percent.”

     

    The Inflation Reduction Act: Historic Reconciliation Legislation to Lower Costs and Tackle Climate Change

    This year, House Budget Democrats again led the way as Congress, working hand-in-hand with the Biden Administration, enacted historic reconciliation legislation to lower costs for families, create jobs, and tackle some of our nation’s most pressing challenges.

    For decades, skyrocketing costs of basic necessities like health care, housing, and energy have left too many families struggling to make ends meet. This year, global inflation, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and continued supply chain issues inflated household costs further and exacerbated underlying economic disparities.

    In response, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act: historic budget reconciliation legislation designed to reduce some of American households’ biggest expenses while easing inflationary pressures and speeding the transition to a clean energy economy.

     

    “The Inflation Reduction Act is the right bill for this moment, historic legislation that will lower the cost of prescription drugs and health care and invest in cleaner, cheaper energy for American families. This bill is a triumph for the American people and for our planet.” - Chairman John Yarmuth

     

    Among its consequential provisions, the Inflation Reduction Act:

    • Expands affordable health care coverage by extending health care tax credits from the American Rescue Plan through 2025
    • Reduces drug costs by finally allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug costs for seniors, capping the price of insulin at $35/month for Medicare beneficiaries, capping prescription drug costs at $2,000, and ensuring drug companies don’t raise prices higher than inflation
    • Lowers families’ energy costs with new tax credits and grants
    • Makes the largest investment to combat the climate crisis in American history, accelerating our transition to clean energy and enabling a 40 percent reduction in carbon pollution by 2030
    • Ensures the wealthiest Americans pay the taxes they owe by strengthening the IRS’s ability to audit those with the highest incomes

     

    The fully-paid-for legislation reduces the deficit by almost $300 billion   and makes our tax system fairer by cutting taxes for working families while ensuring the largest, most profitable corporations and the wealthiest Americans finally pay their fair share. Read the Budget Committee’s full report on the Inflation Reduction Act HERE.

    The legislation passed the Senate on August 7, 2022 by a vote of 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaking vote. The Inflation Reduction Act passed the House of Representatives on August 12, 2022 by a vote of 220-207, and was signed into law by President Biden on August 16, 2022.

     

    Reasserting Congress’ Power Of The Purse & Achieving Much-Needed Transparency

    Three power of the purse provisions —relating to apportionment transparency and reporting—were agreed to as part of the Omnibus in the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Appropriations Act, 2023.  The provisions, authored by Chairman Yarmuth and contained in Title V of the Protecting Our Democracy Act, include making permanent a requirement that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) maintain a public apportionment website. While this provision was also included in the FY22 omnibus, that legislation only required the apportionment website to be operational for that fiscal year—the FY23 omnibus legislation makes this common sense and good government reform permanent.

     

    "Combined with increased funding for critical government programs, this legislation represents a monumental investment in working families, communities across the country, and our nation’s future. This historic funding legislation also includes reforms I have championed as Chairman of the Budget Committee to reassert Congress’ power of the purse in the wake of flagrant disregard for foundational budget laws by previous Administrations. These commonsense reforms will help Congress restore its central role in funding decisions and fulfill its oversight responsibilities by requiring apportionment transparency and reporting. I’m proud of the Budget Committee’s work to ensure these reforms and critical investments were included in this legislation, and I’m honored to see President Biden sign it into law." - Chairman John Yarmuth

     

    House Budget Democrats In Action

    Throughout the past year, House Budget Democrats have been hard at work advancing legislation to lower costs for families and grow our economy from the bottom up and middle out.

    As Republicans push an extremist and dangerous agenda to gut Social Security, Medicare, and the vital programs Americans rely on most, House Budget Democrats will fight to protect Americans’ hard-earned benefits and uphold our commitment to investing in our nation’s greatest resource: the American people.

    With Ranking Member Brendan F. Boyle (PA-02) at the helm, House Budget Democrats will continue to put people over politics and deliver for working  families in the 118th Congress.