General appropriations • The bill funds the federal government through September 30, 2018. • The bill includes large increases to both defense and non-defense spending, following the budget-cap increases that had been included in the
Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 .
Department of Agriculture • Agricultural businesses are exempted from reporting emissions from manure under the
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. • The bill prevents the closure of the
U.S. Sheep Experiment Station, an agricultural experiment station that increases efficiency in sheep production and improve the sustainability of rangeland ecosystems. • The bill delays the implementation of regulations requiring trucks that carry livestock to install electronic devices to monitor time spent driving. • The Pesticide Registration Improvement Act is extended to September 30, 2018. • The foreign catfish inspection program received a $5.5 million increase. Equivalence determinations must be completed within 180 days for each country that wants to continue exporting catfish to the United States. Imports of catfish are prohibited until a final rule of equivalence is issued if the deadline is not met.
Department of Defense • The bill increased the budget of the
Department of Defense by $61 billion. Military employees will receive an increase in pay of 2.4 percent. • The bill added funding for approximately 17,000 more active duty troops and 10,000 more reserve troops in 2018. • The bill included $34.4 billion for defense health and family programs, $359 million for cancer research, $125 million for research of
traumatic brain injury and
mental health, and $287 million for prevention of
sexual assault and responses to sexual assault.
Department of Energy • The
Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy received an increase of $47 million. The Trump Administration had wanted to eliminate it. •
Head Start, which provides comprehensive early-childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent-involvement services to low-income children and their families, received an increase of $610 million. • The Internal Revenue Service is prohibited from spending federal funds "to target citizens of the United States for exercising any right guaranteed under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States" or "to target groups for regulatory scrutiny based on their ideological beliefs." • The
National Flood Insurance Program was extended through July 31, 2018.
Education • The
United States Department of Education will forgive $350-million worth of student debts of borrowers under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. • The bill increased the maximum award for
Pell Grants by $175. • The bill adds $60 million to TRIO, eight programs that help low-income individuals, first-generation college students, and individuals with disabilities to attend middle school, high school, college, and graduate school. •
Appalachian Regional Commission's budget is increased by $3 million, a third of which funds job retraining in counties hurt most by the decline of the coal industry. • Employers are prohibited from keeping tips received by their employees.
Foreign aid • The
Palestinian Authority is ineligible from receiving federal funds unless the Palestinian Authority stops providing stipends to Palestinians imprisoned in Israel for attacking Israel or people in Israel.
Homeland security • The bill includes $1.6 billion for
Mexico–United States border wall, less than the $25 billion sought by the Trump administration.
Housing • The bill increased the federal
Low-Income Housing Tax Credit by 12.5 percent in order to offset the reduction in its value from the reduction of corporate tax rates by ("
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act").
Infrastructure •
Broadband internet will be extended to certain counties in central
Appalachia by way of $10 million of funding.
Science and medical research • The bill provided the largest increase in research funding in a decade, contrary to the significant cuts requested by the Trump administration. The budget of the
National Institutes of Health was increased by $3 billion.
Veterans • Military personnel with an
other-than-honorable discharge are required to have a mental health screening before departure. • The
United States Department of Veterans Affairs will offer mental health support to all veterans with at least 100 days of service in active duty, experienced
sexual assault while serving, experienced trauma while serving, or operated an
unmanned aerial vehicle. H-2B visas allow
foreign workers to work in the United States on a one-time, seasonal, peakload, or intermittent basis. • The bill extends the
EB-5 program, which allows a foreign individual to
immigrate and receive a
green card if the person invests at least $1 million in a business in the United States that will employ at least 10 people. • The
EB-4 program is extended, which allows certain religious workers to immigrate and live permanently in the United States. • The bill extends the Conrad 30 Waiver Program, which allows certain foreign physicians in
family medicine,
obstetrics,
pediatrics,
internal medicine, or
psychiatry to remain in the United States to work in an area with a shortage of physicians, rather than be required to leave the country at the end of their
medical residency training. • The
E-Verify program is extended for three years. E-Verify is a website by the
Department of Homeland Security that allows businesses to verify the employment eligibility of their employees.
Weapons • The bill strengthens requirements for reporting information to the
National Instant Criminal Background Check System. • Legislation was included to allow the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to spend funds on gun-violence research, which was previously considered to be banned by the 1996
Dickey Amendment. ==Proposed provisions not included in the final bill==