Here’s an update from Senator Lisa Murkowski that is being shared by the Alaska Federation of Natives to our membership. Please see the following for essential information on appropriations and Congressionally Directed Spending.
As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Murkowski plays a key role in setting federal budget priorities and directing federal funds to Alaska.
Senator Murkowski strongly supports a regular order process to approve each of Congress’ 12 annual appropriations bills before the start of each fiscal year (FY). As part of this, she helped the Senate Appropriations Committee report all 12 of its bills for the current fiscal year (FY 2024) by August 2023 on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis.
Unfortunately, since then, the full Senate has only taken up and passed three of those 12 bills, forcing Congress to pass continuing resolutions (CRs) to keep the government open and operating after the start of FY 2024. At this time, no FY 2024 appropriations bills are being conferenced with the House of Representatives and none have been sent to the President’s desk for enactment.
The Senate’s failure to consider committee-passed Appropriations bills promptly has created significant uncertainty for FY 2024, including for congressionally directed spending (CDS), as well as the upcoming FY 2025 cycle.
Please visit this page regularly for the latest updates on the budget and CDS processes for both FY 2024 and FY 2025. An update will be posted on March 1 about FY25 applications.
Fiscal Year 2025 Requests
Last Updated: January 29, 2024
At this time, there is little clarity about the FY 2025 appropriations timeline for programmatic or CDS requests. The outcome of the FY 2024 process will determine how many, if any, new project requests the office will be able to accept.
Despite this uncertainty, we still want to hear from you, if you are an Alaskan who is interested in pursuing federal funding for a local community project.
Click here to access our project interest form for FY 2025, which will allow you to start discussing your project with the relevant staff in our office. Be sure to complete all required fields so that we can reach you and determine your project’s eligibility.
Senator Murkowski may open her ‘appropriations portal’ for project submissions as soon as March 1, 2024, depending on the status of FY 2024 appropriations. Be sure to check back regularly for the latest updates, as a truncated FY 2025 process may only allow us to keep the portal open for a short time.
Recent Guidance
Click here to access information on the Senate Appropriations Committee’s CDS guidance for FY 2024. While there is no guarantee this guidance will be identical for FY 2025, and some accounts may be closed, the linked document provides basic information about how this process worked for the current fiscal year and provides an overview of likely eligible accounts.
Fiscal Year 2024
Last Updated: January 29, 2024
FY 2024 began on October 1, 2023.
On January 18, 2024, Congress passed a “laddered” CR to keep the federal government operating. Four of Congress’ annual appropriations bills are now extended through March 1, 2024 (Agriculture, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD) while eight others expire on March 8, 2024 (Commerce-Justice-Science, Defense, Financial Services-General Government, Homeland Security, Interior-Environment, Labor-HHS-Education, Legislative Branch, and State-Foreign Operations).
It remains unclear whether Congress will reach an agreement on spending legislation for the remainder of the fiscal year, or whether it will be necessary to pass additional short-term extensions. Likewise, while Senator Murkowski has secured dozens of CDS requests from Alaskans to benefit local communities in the FY 2024 bills, there is still no guarantee that the funding for those projects will ultimately be enacted into law.
Click here to visit the FY 2024 Appropriations and CDS Request Page. If you have a specific question about an application you submitted for FY 2024, please reach out to [email protected] to connect with a member of Senator Murkowski’s staff.
Click here to visit Senator Murkowski’s FY 2024 Appropriations and CDS Request Page.
Click here to access the Senate Appropriations Committee’s CDS guidance for FY 2024.
