Thank you again for the recognition last week. It was good to see you all. The CEF gala Wednesday night went fine; it was nice to be able to give a shout-out to the NCL members in the audience during my welcome speech rambling. FY 2019 Funding When I saw you last Wednesday we were still awaiting final passage of the FY2019 Defense-Labor/HHS appropriations minibus. As many of you know, of course, it was approved later that day, and signed into law last Friday — somewhat quietly, since as you will recall there was some other stuff going here in Washington at the end of last week that sucked up a lot of the news. By signing the bill, the President averted a partial government shutdown on September 30, as the package included a continuing resolution (CR) through December 7 for the seven FY 2019 appropriations bills that have not yet been enacted. I saw a report that this was the very first time (!) that the Labor-HHS-Education bill has been approved before the September 30 deadline, but that’s not the case. It has been a long time, though. According the Senate Appropriations Committee, it hasn’t happened since 1996. And it’s the most spending bills (5) enacted before the deadline since FY 1997. So, a ridiculously long time, but not the first time. (Imagine, btw, at your job, boasting over getting your work done on time for the first time in 20 years… and even then, not all of it.) https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/president-signs-defense-package-into-law-enacts-most-on-time-spending-bills-in-two-decades What’s Next: Congressional Calendar The House will be in recess until November 13. The Senate is scheduled to remain in session through October 26, but that date could be moved up, especially if they get through the Kavanaugh thing as quickly as Republican leaders want to. Congress will return after the election for a lame-duck session to consider the remaining funding bills. These negotiations will be influenced by the outcome of the election. For example, if Democrats take over the House (this is the most widely anticipated outcome, thought by no means a sure bet, IMO), they may try to delay finalizing the bills until January, when they can have more impact on the outcome. Department of Education Senior Staff List Via CEF, here is a handy link to a list of all of ED’s senior staff officials and their biographies: https://www2.ed.gov/news/staff/bios/index.html Note the significant vacancies in the list before and after Scott Stump: Under Secretary (coordinates postsecondary education, CTE, adult ed, federal student aid); Chief Operating Officer, Federal Student Aid; and Assistant Secretary, Office of Postsecondary Education. Other significant vacancies elsewhere in the list — and some new ones to come, as Jason Botel, Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Innovation and Improvement, will be leaving in a few weeks. CEF Research Briefing on “How the Census Results Will Impact Education Funding” on October 12 Speaking of CEF, we’re going to have our third research briefing next week, on how the results of the 2020 decennial census will impact funding for education. I know the census is an area of interest for NCL members — I likely will not be able not make this briefing, but if there are NCL members in town interested in attending, please feel free. No need to RSVP, although helpful to me if you can give me a heads up that you are coming. This will take place 9-11am at AASCU, 1307 New York Ave, NW. Speakers include: Indivar Dutta-Gupta, Georgetown Center for Poverty and Inequality Corrine Yu, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Someone from the U.S. Census Bureau (invitation pending) Jeff Jeff Carter Cell: (202) 374-4387 | @jeffcrtr Senior Policy Advisor National Coalition for Literacy www.national-coalition-literacy.org <http://www.national-coalition-literacy.org/> jcarter@literacypolicy.org <mailto:jcarter@literacypolicy.org> President, Committee for Education Funding Executive Director Physicians for Social Responsibility 1111 14th St, NW, Suite 700 Washington, DC 20005 www.psr.org <http://www.psr.org/> | jcarter@psr.org <mailto:jcarter@psr.org>