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The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee wants to stabilize funding for the federal Employee Benefits Security Administration — and for EBSA to look harder at how well employer health plans are covering mental health services and addiction treatment.
Committee members voted 26-3 to support a government funding package — the Fiscal Year 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Act bill — that holds EBSA's funding steady at $191.1 million.
EBSA is part of the U.S. Labor Department. The Senate committee's bill would set funding levels for EBSA and the rest of the Labor Department for the 12-month period that starts Oct. 1.
The Trump administration had proposed cutting EBSA funding 5.2%, to $181.1 million.
Related: Trump budget proposal could help ICHRAs by keeping ACA exchange program alive
The Senate committee included a note in its bill report about enforcement of federal laws requiring health coverage to make any behavioral benefits comparable to their other health benefits.
"The committee supports additional efforts directed toward systemic and targeted audits of health care coverage provided through ERISA plans, to ensure parity between mental and physical health care coverage as required by current law," according to the committee report.
What it means: Self-funded employer health plans could be more likely to face mental health and addiction treatment benefits parity audits next year.
Commercial health insurance oversight: The same funding package that would fund EBSA would also fund the program management arm of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
CMS is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The CMS program management arm runs HealthCare.gov and runs or oversees many other programs that affect commercial health insurance.
The Senate Appropriations Committee wants to hold CMS program management funding at $3.7 billion in fiscal year 2026.
The Trump administration had proposed cutting CMS program management funding 5.4%, to $3.5 billion.
Stability at the CMS program management arm could help the companies supporting and using individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements, or mechanisms that provide employer cash that workers can use to buy their own individual health coverage.
Medical research: The Senate Appropriations Committee also approved many other spending provisions that are different from the provisions included in the preliminary Trump administration budget proposal.
One provision in the original proposal could cut spending at the National Institutes of Health, a federal agency that sponsors medical research, by 40%.
The Senate committee's bill includes $48.7 billion in NIH funding, up from a $48.3 billion appropriation for fiscal year 2025.
The House: The House Appropriations Committee had originally planned to mark up its version of the Labor Department and HHS appropriations bill July 24, but it ended up postponing the
committee's cuts because of changes in the House calendar.
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