Posted by: jgomori Posted date: December 26, 2022

On Dec. 23 Congress passed the final Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations bill just in time to avert a government shutdown. In a major win for NAPO and 9/11 responders and survivors across the country, an additional $1 billion in funding for the 9/11 World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) was included in the spending measure.  Congress passed the Fiscal 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which funds the federal government and all its departments, agencies, and programs through the rest of this fiscal year. In a significant victory for NAPO and our members, our priority retirement provisions were passed as part of bill: the Putting First Responders First Act, the Police and Fire Healthcare Protection Act, and the Protecting Public Safety Employees’ Timely Retirement Act; The massive Fiscal Year 2023 consolidated appropriations package includes a temporary extension of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) temporary class-wide scheduling of all fentanyl-related substances as Schedule 1 drugs under the Controlled Substances Act – making them illegal – through Dec. 31, 2024; and NAPO’s priority grant programs are sufficiently funded in the FY 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act and the various requirements the House tried to place on those programs to force its police reform policies on state and local law enforcement were largely rejected in the final bill. NAPO pushed hard to ensure those police reform provisions were not included in the final bill.

For more details on these and other legislative matters, click on the Dec. 23, 2022 Washington Report below.

 Dec. 23, 2022 Washington Report