HR5304-119

What This Bill Does

This is the fiscal year 2026 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. It funds and controls the Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Social Security Administration, and related agencies. It includes ordinary appropriations controls such as transfer limits, salary caps, evaluation set-asides, reception-expense limits, congressional notification requirements, grant-credit language, and restrictions on publicity or propaganda.

The Labor title caps Job Corps and Employment and Training Administration salaries, permits limited DOL transfers for program integrity and evaluations, blocks procurement involving forced or indentured child labor, preserves Job Corps centers unless notice and conditions are met, freezes the H-2A Adverse Effect Wage Rate for two years at the January 31, 2023 level, and lets seafood-industry H-2B employers bring approved workers into the United States during a 120-day window without a new petition. The HHS title includes Title X child-abuse reporting and family-participation conditions, Medicare Advantage non-discrimination language, BARDA multi-year contracting authority, NIH facility and addiction-transfer provisions, CMS transfer authority, Community Services Block Grant construction and loan flexibility, and major rescissions from HHS funds and pandemic-era balances.

The bill also contains many policy riders. It blocks funds for abortion except under specified exceptions, Title X abortion referrals, reproductive-health executive orders, gender-transition interventions for minors and several HHS and Education nondiscrimination rules, the long-term-care staffing rule, the CCDF affordability rule, the WISeR prior-authorization model in traditional Medicare, and HHS public-health emergencies based solely on gun violence. Education riders restrict federal aid to institutions that allow male athletes in female athletic programs, protect religious student organizations, block specified student-loan debt-discharge rules, and require higher-education institutions receiving funds to prohibit antisemitic conduct. Government-wide riders address Social Security field offices and phone services, federal grant credit statements, needle purchases, DEI training, foreign-adversary procurement, OTA and technology restrictions, and communication labeling.

Who Benefits and How

Job Corps centers benefit from a funding restriction that blocks closures, consolidations, or operational reductions without congressional notice and conditions. Seafood employers using H-2B workers benefit from a 120-day entry window after petition approval. Community Services Block Grant agencies and community development corporations benefit from authority to use funds for construction, rehabilitation, loans, and investments. Traditional Medicare providers and physicians benefit because the bill blocks CMS from implementing the WISeR prior-authorization model. Religious student organizations and students who object to sex-based athletics policies benefit from Education funding restrictions. Higher-education Jewish students benefit from the antisemitic-conduct condition. Anti-abortion groups, conscience-rights advocates, and opponents of gender-transition interventions benefit from funding bans and enforcement restrictions. Social Security beneficiaries benefit from riders preserving field offices and phone service availability.

Who Bears the Burden and How

DOL, HHS, Education, SSA, CNCS, and related-agency budget staff must administer transfer limits, reporting deadlines, salary caps, rescissions, and rider compliance. Grant recipients must include federal funding percentages and dollar amounts in public communications. Title X providers, abortion providers, gender-transition providers, and entities affected by reproductive-health executive-order restrictions lose access to certain federal funds or implementation support. Long-term-care staffing-rule implementers, CCDF rule implementers, and CMS innovation model staff must stop or delay specified regulatory work. Public institutions of higher education and education grant recipients must comply with sex-based athletics, religious student organization, and antisemitism conditions. DEI training providers, needle exchange programs, and entities using covered foreign-adversary technology face funding restrictions.

Key Provisions

• Provides fiscal year 2026 appropriations and transfer controls for Labor, HHS, Education, SSA, CNCS, and related agencies.
• Caps Job Corps and Employment and Training Administration compensation paid with covered funds.
• Preserves Job Corps centers from closure, consolidation, or operational reduction absent required notice and conditions.
• Freezes the H-2A Adverse Effect Wage Rate for two years and creates a 120-day entry window for approved seafood-industry H-2B workers.
• Expands Community Services Block Grant uses for construction, rehabilitation, loans, and investments.
• Blocks funds for abortion-related activities, gender-transition interventions, reproductive-health executive orders, several HHS rules, and the WISeR prior-authorization model.
• Restricts Education funds tied to sex-based athletics, religious student organizations, student-loan discharge rules, and higher-education antisemitism policies.
• Requires grant-credit statements, congressional responses, communication labeling, and numerous government-wide funding limitations.