Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026

This bill sets the yearly budget for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education for fiscal year 2026. It also adds many limits on how agencies can spend money. These limits touch health care, schools and sports, immigration programs for children, job rules, and research.

Key points people may notice:

• Abortion and family planning: No federal funds for abortion or for health plans that cover it, except in cases of rape, incest, or if the mother’s life is in danger. It also protects doctors and clinics that refuse to provide or refer for abortions, and requires Title X clinics to encourage family involvement for minors and follow state abuse‑reporting laws.
• Research and IDs: No funds for creating or destroying human embryos for research, or for research using fetal tissue from induced abortions. It also keeps the ban on creating a national unique health ID for patients and bars promoting the legalization of Schedule I drugs.
• Gender‑related care and rules: Blocks federal funds for medical or behavioral interventions meant to change a person’s body to no longer match sex at birth, and blocks related animal research. It also stops HHS from enforcing certain LGBTQI+ placement rules for foster care and from a new rule for the Unaccompanied Children program.
• Schools and sports: Schools that allow males (as defined by sex at birth) to play in girls’ or women’s sports cannot get these funds, and certain new Title IX rules cannot be enforced. Voluntary prayer and meditation programs in public schools are allowed.
• Guns and emergencies: HHS cannot use funds to advocate for gun control. CDC, NIH, and SAMHSA cannot treat gun crime as a public health “epidemic” in research, though they can study medical care and recovery. HHS also cannot use public health emergency powers to restrict Second Amendment rights.
• Children at the border: Limits when unaccompanied children can be placed with sponsors and requires monthly public reports on children separated from parents. Members of Congress may visit shelters if they give notice.
• Jobs and wages: Gives seafood employers more flexibility to bring in H‑2B seasonal workers; freezes H‑2A farmworker wage rates for two years; and blocks enforcement of some recent labor rules (including the independent contractor rule). It also prevents closing Job Corps centers unless it will not harm youth jobs, housing, or public safety.
• Medicare and insurance: Stops a model that would add prior authorization in traditional Medicare, blocks a minimum staffing rule for nursing homes, and blocks limits on short‑term health plans. It also protects Medicare Advantage plans that refuse abortion services from being pushed out of the program.
• Government operations: Grantees must say how much of a project is federally funded in public materials. Only certain flags may fly over federal buildings. It also blocks spending on certain DEI and climate‑related executive orders.