The Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill includes funding for a wide variety of federal government functions and government-wide direction on usage of funds.¹ The bill funds:

• the Department of the Treasury (Title I),²
• the Executive Office of the President (Title II),
• the judiciary (Title III),³
• the District of Columbia (Title IV),⁴ and
• more than two dozen independent agencies (Title V).

Title VI of the bill typically funds mandatory retirement accounts for the entire government and contains additional general provisions applying to the funding provided to agencies through the FSGG bill. Title VII typically contains general provisions that apply government-wide.

The House and Senate FSGG bills fund the same agencies, with one exception. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is funded through the Agriculture appropriations bill in the House and the FSGG bill in the Senate. Where the CFTC is funded upon enactment typically depends on which chamber originated the law, which alternates annually. Thus, the enacted amounts for the CFTC have historically been in the Agriculture appropriations bill one year and the FSGG appropriations bill the following year. This structure has existed in its current form since the 2007 reorganization of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations.

Although financial services are a major focus of the FSGG appropriations bill, the bill does not include funding for many financial regulatory agencies, which are instead funded outside of the appropriations process. However, it is not uncommon for legislative provisions addressing various financial regulatory issues to be included in titles at the end of the bill.

Administration and Congressional Action

President Biden submitted his full FY2023 budget request on March 28, 2022.⁵ The request included a total of $53.2 billion for agencies funded through the FSGG appropriations bill, including a net total of $249 million for the CFTC.⁶

The House Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2023 (H.R. 8254), was marked up in subcommittee on June 16, 2022; marked up in full committee on June 24, 2022; and reported (H.Rept. 117-393) on June 28, 2022. Approximate total FY2023 funding in the reported bill was $51.7 billion. Another $365 million for the CFTC was included in the Agriculture appropriations bill (H.R. 8239; H.Rept. 117-392). The combined total of $52.1 billion was approximately $1.1 billion less than the President's FY2023 request.

FSGG appropriations were included as Division D of H.R. 8294 when the House took up that bill on July 19-20, 2022. Among the other appropriations measures included was the Agriculture bill with funding for the CFTC in Division B. The House Committee on Rules made a number of amendments in order for floor consideration, most of which were combined into larger en bloc amendments on the floor.⁷ The adopted amendments shifted funding among some FSGG agencies without changing the overall totals.⁸

The Senate Committee on Appropriations has held two subcommittee hearings on the Department of the Treasury's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network⁹ and on the Internal Revenue Service.¹⁰ On July 28, 2022, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy released the "Chairman's mark" of all 12 appropriations bills as well as draft committee reports.¹¹ Senate FSGG Subcommittee Chair Chris Van Hollen introduced an FY2023 FSGG bill, S. 4685, reflecting the chairman's mark on the same day.¹² These FSGG bills would appropriate an approximate total of $51.3 billion, $1.9 billion less than the President's request.

Continuing Resolution (CR)

No full-year FY2023 appropriations measure was enacted prior to the end of September 2022. The Senate passed the Continuing Appropriations and Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023 (H.R. 6833), on September 29, 2022, with the House following on September 30, 2022. The President signed the bill, now P.L. 117-180, on the same day. Division A of P.L. 117-180 provided continuing appropriations through December 16, 2022. This continuing funding is based on the FY2022 levels with a certain number of changes known generally as anomalies. Details on the FY2023 FSGG anomalies can be found in the Appendix of this report. For more information on the FY2023 CR, see CRS Report R47283, Overview of Continuing Appropriations for FY2023 (Division A of P.L. 117-180).¹³ Two additional CRs were enacted, P.L. 117-229 and P.L. 117-264, providing continuing appropriations largely based on FY2022 levels through December 23, 2022, and December 30, 2022, respectively.

Full-Year FY2023 Appropriations

Full-year FY2023 appropriations were ultimately provided in Division E of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (H.R. 2617/P.L. 117-328).¹⁴ Initially the House amended an unrelated bill on federal employee performance, H.R. 2617, with an appropriations measure on December 14, 2022. The Senate followed with a further amendment on December 22, 2022, and the House agreed to the Senate amendment on December 23, 2022. The President signed the bill on December 29, 2022. Division E, which included funding for the CFTC, provided appropriations for FSGG agencies totaling approximately $49.65 billion, $3.5 billion less than the President's initial request.

Table 1 below reflects the status of FY2023 FSGG appropriations measures at key points in the appropriations process. Table 2 lists, largely by title, the amounts requested by the President and included in the various FSGG and emergency supplemental bills. Tables 3-7, respectively, detail the amounts for the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President, the judiciary, the District of Columbia, and the independent agencies. Specific columns in Tables 3-7 are FSGG agencies' enacted amounts for FY2022, the President's FY2023 request, the FY2023 amounts from the House-passed H.R. 8294, and the amounts from the Senate subcommittee chairman's bill (S. 4685).

Financial Regulatory Agencies and FSGG Appropriations

Although financial services are a focus of the FSGG bill, the bill does not actually include funding for the regulation of much of the financial services industry.¹⁵ Financial regulatory agencies can be broadly subdivided into groups that regulate depositories (primarily banks), insurance, securities, and housing finance. Federal regulation of the banking industry is divided among the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (generally known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, which also has authorities over certain nonbank financial institutions).¹⁶ In addition, credit unions—another type of depository—which operate like banks in most ways, are regulated by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA).¹⁷ None of these agencies receives primary funding through the appropriations process, with only the FDIC inspector general and a small program operated by the NCUA currently funded in the FSGG bill.

Insurance is generally regulated at the state level, with some oversight at the holding company level by the Federal Reserve. There is a relatively small Federal Insurance Office (FIO) inside the Treasury that is funded through the Departmental Offices account, but the FIO has no regulatory authority.¹⁸

Federal securities regulation is divided between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the CFTC, both of which are funded through appropriations.¹⁹ The CFTC funding is a relatively straightforward appropriation from the general fund, whereas the SEC funding is provided by the FSGG bill but then offset through fees collected by the SEC.

Housing finance, particularly the two large government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is overseen by the Federal Housing Finance Agency,²⁰ which is funded primarily through assessments on regulated entities and receives no funding through the FSGG bill.

Although funding for many financial regulatory agencies may not be provided by the FSGG bill, legislative provisions affecting financial regulation in general and some of these agencies specifically have often been included in FSGG bills. In FY2023, however, neither the President's budget request nor the congressional bills included such legislative provisions.

Committee Structure and Scope

The House and Senate Committees on Appropriations reorganized their subcommittee structures in early 2007. Each chamber created a new Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee. In the House, the jurisdiction of the FSGG Subcommittee is composed primarily of agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies, commonly referred to as TTHUD.²¹ In addition, the House FSGG Subcommittee was assigned four independent agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Subcommittee: the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the SEC, and the Small Business Administration (SBA).

In the Senate, the jurisdiction of the FSGG Subcommittee is a combination of agencies from the jurisdiction of three previously existing subcommittees. Most of the agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Transportation, Treasury, Judiciary, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee were assigned to the FSGG Subcommittee.²² In addition, the District of Columbia, which had its own subcommittee in the 109^th Congress, was placed under the purview of the FSGG Subcommittee, as were four independent agencies that had been under the jurisdiction of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee: the FCC, FTC, SEC, and SBA. As a result of this reorganization, the House and Senate FSGG Subcommittees have nearly identical jurisdictions except that the CFTC is under the jurisdiction of the FSGG Subcommittee in the Senate and the Agriculture Subcommittee in the House.

Appendix. FSGG Anomalies in P.L. 117-180

Section 128—Department of Treasury Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau²³

Section 128 provides additional funding for "Department of Treasury—Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau—Salaries and Expenses" at a rate for operations of $14,929,000. These funds are to administer the Craft Beverage Modernization Act import claims program.

Section 129—Office of National Cyber Director²⁴

Section 129 creates a new heading under the "Executive Office of the President and Funds Appropriated to the President," providing $21 million for a new Office of National Cyber Director, which was created by the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 116-283).

Section 130—Judiciary Fees of Jurors and Commissioners²⁵

Section 130 provides funding at a rate for operations of $59,565,000 for "The Judiciary—Courts of Appeals, District Courts, and Other Judicial Services—Fees of Jurors and Commissioners," enabling statutorily mandated payments to jurors during the duration of the CR.

Section 131—Judiciary Court Security²⁶

Section 131 provides an additional $112.5 million in emergency funds for "The Judiciary—Courts of Appeals, District Courts, and Other Judicial Services—Court Security" to be used for security improvements at U.S. courthouses and federal court facilities. Quarterly reporting from the courts on the use of this funding is also required.

Section 132—District of Columbia Local Funds²⁷

Section 132 grants congressional approval to the District of Columbia's general fund and capital budgets for FY2023. This approval is consistent with the requirement that Congress approve the District's annual budget under the District of Columbia Self-Government and Government Reorganization Act (P.L. 93-198).²⁸ This provision grants the District the authority to expend locally raised funds only for those programs and activities that received funding in the District's FY2022 appropriation. This provision also allows District officials to obligate locally raised funds at the rate set forth in the District's Fiscal Year 2023 Local Budget Act of 2022.

Section 133—Veteran-Owned Small Business Certification²⁹

Section 133 provides additional funds at a rate for operations of $20 million for "Small Business Administration—Salaries and Expenses." This funding is to address costs associated with the establishment of the government-wide certification program for service-disabled-veteran-owned small businesses by January 1, 2023, as required by Section 36 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. §657f) and Section 862 of P.L. 116-283.

Section 134—SBA Loan Programs³⁰

Section 134 authorizes the SBA to apportion funding provided by this act at the rate necessary to meet demand for commitments for several of its lending programs, including general business loans authorized under paragraphs (1) through (35) of Section 7(a) of the Small Business Act,³¹ guarantees of trust certificates authorized by Section 5(g) of the Small Business Act,³² commitments to guarantee loans under Section 503 of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958,³³ and commitments to guarantee loans for debentures under Section 303(b) of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958.³⁴