Government affairs

The White House released its Fiscal Year 2022 (FY 2022) budget outline today. The budget proposal reflects the priorities of the administration but must be reviewed and approved by members of Congress who control the budget and appropriations process. As is customary with presidential first-year budget requests, the current outline lacks certain specifics, and a more detailed budget request is expected later this spring.

Regarding the Postal Service, the outline reiterates the administration’s priority of securing electric vehicles and specifically increasing “demand for American made, zero-emission vehicles through federal procurement.” The budget request includes $600 million for electric vehicles and the development of charging stations for 18 federal agencies and USPS.

Notably, in contrast to presidential budget requests over the past four years that have proposed reducing or eliminating retirement benefits, increasing employees’ share of health benefits, and other changes to Postal Service operations, this first Biden administration budget includes no such cuts.

Overall, the budget outline includes more than $1.5 trillion in discretionary spending for FY 2022. This includes $769 billion in domestic spending, a 16% increase from FY 2021, and $753 billion in defense spending, a 1.7% increase. The proposal focuses on funding medical research, education, housing, combating gun violence and climate change, and more. It focuses these efforts through increased funding to federal agencies including the Department of Housing and Urban Development (15% increase), the Department of Education (41% increase), the Department of Justice (5.3% increase), and others.

Later this spring, the White House will release a more detailed presidential budget request as Congress begins the budget and appropriations process. Check back for future updates.