Last night, Congress unveiled a $1.1 trillion spending bill that will keep most of the federal government funded through September 30, 2015. The Department of Homeland Security has funding only until February 27, 2015 so that action might be taken by the Republican Congress early next year to counter the President's recent actions on immigration.

The Indian Health Service (IHS) will receive a total of $4.6 billion in FY 2015. This is $208 million above the FY 2014 level.  Within this, $4.2 billion is provided for services and $460.2 million for facilities. 

Purchased/ Referred Care (formerly known as Contract Health Services) will have an increase of over $35 million in FY 2015 for a total of $914 million. The legislation will also fund contract support costs (CSC) at almost $663 million which is based on a revised estimate provided to Congress.  This amount includes increased CSC for FY 2015 but also funds to repay other budget line items which were reprogrammed to cover the FY 2014 CSC shortfall.  

You can find the text of the text of Appropriations bill here (IHS is in Division F) and the accompanying explanatory statement for IHS here.  You can find a summary of the whole spending package here.  

It is expected that the House of Representatives will consider the spending bill on Thursday.  If the legislation clears the House, the Senate will likely take it up on Friday.  

NIHB will be providing a more detailed budget analysis in the coming days. In the meantime, please contact Caitrin Shuy, Director of Congressional relations at NIHB with any questions.  She can be reached at (202) 507-4085 or [email protected].