On March 10, the US Senate voted 68-31 to pass a $1.5 trillion omnibus bill that will fund the federal government for the remainder of this fiscal year, which ends on September 30. The Senate vote followed the House’s March 10 vote approving of the continuing funding resolution. The bill will go to President Biden for his signature.

For the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), $1 billion will be allocated to create a new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health within the HHS Office of the Secretary to accelerate the pace of scientific breakthroughs for diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and cancer. In addition, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will get $6.9 billion, an increase of $353 million than in 2021, for the National Cancer Institute, including $194 million for the Cancer Moonshot. Additionally, the HHS will get $50 million for health disparities research.

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) will receive $100 million to modernize public health data surveillance and analytics at the CDC, state, and local health departments. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will receive $1.3 billion, an increase of $72 million above 2021 funding, for HRSA’s Bureau of Health Professions programs to support health workforce development. The omnibus bill also extends the increased Medicaid Federal Medical Assistance Percentage amounts for Puerto Rico and other US territories.

The bill also allocated $10.6 billion for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund, ensuring that the HHS fully addresses current pandemic realities and prepares for future variants. These funds will be used to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus varients, including for necessary expenses concerning the research and development, manufacturing, production, purchase, and distribution of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical products, services, and supplies.

Lastly, the bill allocates $13.6 billion in funding toward military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine — those funds are about evenly divided between the Defense and non-Defense accounts.