Senate Appropriations Allocations

The Senate appropriations full committee approved its funding including almost exactly $5 billion more than the President’s requested level for Labor-HHS-Education. This is the overall amount of funds that the committee has to allocate to all of its programs.

FY06 FY07 President Senate FY07 allocation
$141,200 $137,798 $142,800

The L-HHS-ED appropriations subcommittee has scheduled its “mark up” for July 18 and full committee for July 20.

Budget Reform
House passed H.R. 4890, Legislative Line Item Veto Act, giving the President the authority to cancel certain discretionary, mandatory and tax expenditures subject to congressional approval within 45 days of passage.

The Senate Budget Committee approved Senator Gregg’s comprehensive budget reform bill, including a line item veto provision.

Voc Ed Moving??

The long-stalled bill Perkins reauthorization bill could see action in summer 2006. In early June 2006, Senate and House leaders said they planned to appoint a conference committee to hash out differences between the HR 366 and S 250, a House committee chairman and congressional aides said.
Education and the Workforce Chairman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., said in an interview that he expected conferees to be appointed soon. "We'll be moving on that," McKeon said.
The biggest difference between the bills is that the House version would combine the Perkins grants with a program called Tech-Prep, which offers specialized math and science courses to prepare high school students for vocational colleges, whereas the Senate bill keeps the programs separate. Some lawmakers fear that if they are merged, Tech-Prep will be gradually eliminated.
Another difference is what to call the program. The House bill calls it "Vocational and Technical Education." The Senate bill calls it "Career and Technical Education."
Bush has not threatened to veto a compromise bill, recognizing the program's strong bipartisan support. Bush has asked conferees for provisions to "ensure accountability" for the spending and direct money toward programs that improve graduation rates or job prospects

June 14th funding report

The House Committee on Appropriations passed the Labor, Health & Human Services, Education and related agencies (L-HHS-ED) and related agencies appropriations bill on June 13. Education funding remains unchanged from the amount previously passed by sub-committee on June 7th.

For details go to:
http://appropriations.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=632&Month=6&Year=2006

Complete tables L-HHS-ED
http://appropriations.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=CommitteeDocuments.Home

June 7, 2006 funding report:

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Committee agreed to a bill that sets total discretionary spending at $141.930 billion. The Department of Education’s budget is $400 million dollars less than FY06, a decrease of 0.7%.

Highlights of the bill: (B=billions, M=millions)

Programs that are funded at the FY06 level
Title I grants to LEA’s $12.7B
Reading First $1.02B
Early Reading First $103M
Striving Readers $35M
Impact Aid $1.2B
National Writing Project $21.5M
Head Start $6.7B
Regional Education Laboratories $65.5M
Vocational Education $1,296B

Programs that received an increase from FY06
IDEA state grants +150.1M making FY07 $11.753B
Title I, School improvements grants +$200M (new funding)
Title V-innovative state grants +$51M FY 07 $150M
Striving Readers +$5.3M FY 07 $35M
Pell Grant Maximum Award +$100 ($4,150 maximum award)
Math and Science Partnerships +$42.8M FY07 $225M
Advance Placement of +$47.8M FY07 $80M

All other higher education programs are level funded, including Trio, Gear Up, LEAP, College Work Study and Perkins loans cancellation.

Programs that received a decrease from FY06
Even Start - $29M FY07 $70M
Smaller Learning Communities -$43.5M FY07 $45.3M
Safe and Drug Free Schools state grants -$36.5M FY07 $310M
Teacher Quality state grants -$300.4M FY07 $2,587B
Comprehensive School Reform -$4.9 M FY07 $3M
School Counselors -$12.65 M FY07 $22M

The bill completely eliminates:
Education Technology State Grants -$272.3M
Drop Out Prevention -$4.5M
Arts in Education -$34M

The bill does not fund the President’s $1.5 billion high school initiative, the opportunity scholarship program, or the competitiveness initiative.

Funding Action in the Senate

Senator Snow (R-ME) is seeking fellow senators to sign on to a "Dear Colleague" letter asking that the $7 billion passed in the Senate Budget process be allocated to the Labor/Health and Human Services/Education appropriations committee. This amount would restore the cuts made to those programs within the committee's jurisdiction last year and bring them back to FY 2005 levels.

The Committee for Education Funding (CEF), a coalition of over 100 education groups, is asking for calls and emails to be sent into members of the Senate asking for them to sign on to this "Dear Colleague" letter.