The White House released the President’s Budget Request for federal fiscal year 2023 (FY23) today including proposals for significant increases to the Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant (MCH Block Grant) and other federal programs to improve maternal and child health in the coming fiscal year. The budget proposes $953.7 million for the MCH Block Grant in FY23, which would be a $206 million increase compared to the final FY22 funding level of $747.7 million. This is the largest investment in the MCH Block Grant that a Presidential Administration has ever proposed.

The $206 million proposed increase to the MCH Block Grant would be divided as a $24 million increase to the state formula fund and a $182 million increase to Special Projects of Regional and National Significance (SPRANS). You can see the estimate for what each state and territory would receive in FY23 if Congress funded the MCH Block Grant at this level by viewing pages 220-222 of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)’s Congressional Justification.

Proposed investments in SPRANS focus predominantly on improving maternal health with a particular emphasis on eliminating racial, ethnic, and geographic inequities in maternal health outcomes. For more information about the specific SPRANS initiatives that the budget proposes, see pages 216-217 of HRSA’s Congressional Justification.

While we are thrilled to see a significant proposed investment in the MCH Block Grant for FY23, AMCHP continues to encourage Congress to fund the MCH Block Grant at $1 billion in FY23, including a more robust increase for the state formula fund than what is proposed in the President’s Budget. The state formula fund serves as the backbone of our nation’s public health infrastructure for women, children, and families, and that infrastructure needs sustained, increased investment to recover from the strains of the COVID-19 pandemic and best serve the nation’s maternal and child health populations now and into the future. As a reminder, the release of the President’s Budget is the kick-off for the FY23 appropriations process and Congress will ultimately decide what funding levels we will see in the next fiscal year.

AMCHP’s Government Affairs Team will continue analyzing the FY23 President’s Budget Request and provide additional details in the coming edition of Member Briefs. In the meantime, we encourage you to review the following resources for more information about the FY23 President’s Budget Request:

• FY23 Budget in Brief;
• FY23 Appendix for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and
• FY23 HRSA Congressional Justification.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Government Affairs Team with questions: Amy Haddad (ahaddad@amchp.org), Alyson Northrup (anorthrup@amchp.org), and Lauren Blachowiak (lblachowiak@amchp.org).