❮ Return to Our Work

Blog Post | October 14, 2022

Omnibus Awareness Month in Review

Executive BranchGovernment CapacityIndependent Agencies

If Congress regularly met its own deadlines, then October—the first month of the fiscal year—would also be the first month when federal agencies could implement their new and improved budgets. Unfortunately, the modern Congress regularly fails to pass an omnibus spending package for the next fiscal year, which bundles several appropriations bills for different parts of the federal government into one whole-of-government budget, by the end of the previous fiscal year. This autumn is no different.

In the final hours of September, as we’ve written about for our newsletter, Congress passed a continuing resolution to avoid a government shut-down. The continuing resolution will maintain government spending at current levels through December 16, 2022. As it is an election year, Congress is spending the last six weeks before the midterms largely in recess, to allow for political campaigning. When Congress returns in a lame-duck session after the midterms, they’ll be returning in earnest (hopefully) to the work of drafting, reconciling, and passing an omnibus spending bill that provides much-needed funding increases for federal agencies to tackle urgent priorities. 

This October, we’ve set out to raise awareness of the sweeping significance of this appropriations process for every issue area that matters to progressives, from healthcare to consumer protection to environmental justice to workplace safety. Every weekday in October, we’re tweeting about a different federal agency whose budget is currently up for negotiation, with real consequences for the agencies’ capacity to work in the public interest and meet its mandates. We’re focusing particularly on agencies that have been systematically underfunded for years to decades, in large part because conservatives know that robust funding for these agencies could upset the disbalance of power they favor between entrenched corporate interests and the public.

Below, you’ll find a round-up of our daily Omnibus Awareness Month tweets, as well as links to our past work on these federal agencies’ capacity and importance

Day 1 (October 3): the National Labor Relations Board

Day 2 (October 4): the Department of the Interior

Day 3 (October 5): the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division

Day 4 (October 6): the Department of Housing and Development

Day 5 (October 7): the Food and Drug Administration

Day 6 (October 10): Indigenous Peoples’ Day

  • Our Twitter thread on the importance of federal appropriations for tribal interests is here
  • For more on Native policy and politics, follow Rob Capriccioso’s “Indigenous Wire

Day 7 (October 11): the Securities and Exchange Commission

Day 8 (October 12): the Federal Trade Commission

Day 9 (October 13): the Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Day 10 (October 14): the Department of Agriculture

Day 11 (October 17): the Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Day 12 (October 18): the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Day 13 (October 19): the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division

  • Our Twitter thread is here

Day 14 (October 20): the Federal Maritime Commission

Day 15 (October 21): the Environmental Protection Agency

  • Our Twitter thread is here

Day 16 (October 24): Veterans Affairs

  • Our Twitter thread is here

Day 17 (October 25): the Department of Energy

  • Our Twitter thread is here

Day 18 (October 26): the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission

  • Our Twitter thread is here

Day 19 (October 27): the Defense Department

  • Our Twitter thread is here

Day 20 (October 28): the Office of Personnel Management

  • Our Twitter thread is here
Executive BranchGovernment CapacityIndependent Agencies

Related Articles

More articles by Hannah Story Brown More articles by Timi Iwayemi More articles by Fatou Ndiaye

❮ Return to Our Work