A couple of notes cribbed mostly from CEF… FY 2021 Appropriations. As most of you know, the federal government is being funded right now via a continuing resolution (CR) that was passed back in September. CRs are legislative vehicles that essentially keep things funded at current (in this case, Fiscal Year 2020) levels when appropriations bills haven’t been negotiated and passed by October 1 — the start of the federal fiscal year. The current CR is set to expire on December 11. So the question is whether they will get a FY 2021 spending bill done by then or have to pass another CR to stretch the deadline. The Senate and House Appropriations Committee chairs agreed on funding totals for the all 12 appropriations bills just before Thanksgiving. The overall funding total in the House-passed Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill isn’t much different from what was proposed by the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier in November. Most education programs are likely to have their funding frozen at the FY 2020 level or get a small increase. (See CEF’s chart for details <https://cef.org/wp-content/uploads/11.10.20-CEFs-FY-2021-Funding-Table-House-and-Senate-comparison.pdf> — but if you quote from it please be sure to credit their work.) The Senate bill freezes spending on WIOA Title II at last year’s level while the House included a small increase. There are a variety of policy and funding issues that are still being fought over in many of the appropriations bills, so there is a distinct possibility that we are going to be looking at option #2 — a new short-term CR to extend current funding for at least a week beyond Dec. 11 so that they'll have more time. Committee Chairs. The House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee will announce this week their recommendation to chair the House Appropriations Committee in the upcoming 117th Congress. (This recommendation is rarely overturned when full Democratic Caucus meets to vote on committee chairs.) The race is between Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). Rep. DeLauro, as most of you know, currently chairs the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee. Both DeLauro and Kaptur are members of the House Progressive Caucus, and Rep. Kaptur has been in Congress a LOOOOONG time and thus has some seniority. So there is your lineup of contenders. I was at one time given the impression that DeLauro was a cinch to move up to this role, but CEF is hearing that while she is still the favorite, the vote is close. Jeff Jeff Carter Cell: (202) 374-4387 | @jeffcrtr Occasionally Chimes In on Policy National Coalition for Literacy www.national-coalition-literacy.org <http://www.national-coalition-literacy.org/> jcarter@literacypolicy.org <mailto:jcarter@literacypolicy.org> Former 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>

So in my current position, I have to spend a bit more time following the coronavirus relief stuff than education funding. An announcement made today may be of interest. A bipartisan group of Senators — Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Joe Manchin, (D-WV), Mark Warner (D-VA) and Mitt Romney (R-UT) — released a short-term compromise proposal <https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/12/01/stimulus-congress-coronavirus/> for COVID relief. The package includes much less funding than either version of the House-passed Heroes Acts but more than the Senate Republican HEAL Act proposal that never made it to the floor. While details of the proposal have not been finalized, you can see the top-line amounts in the chart attached. Some notes on this chart: Presumably most of the education funding would go to the Education Stabilization Fund <https://oese.ed.gov/offices/education-stabilization-fund/>. The additional UI money would over $300 per week in continued unemployment benefits. I do not know of a source yet that has identified what specifically the $4 billion for student loans would be for. It’s also not clear how much of the $10 billion for broadband might be for schools and families for education-related needs — past bills have not, other than the the second Heroes Act. No word yet on whether Speaker Pelosi or Leader McConnell support this proposal. And it’s really, at best, a stop-gap: the relief provided is limited and the proposal would only cover the period between December 1 through March 31, so the new Congress coming in January will presumably still need to put together a more comprehensive stimulus and relief package, even if this proposal is enacted - and it might not be! Politico reported yesterday that the package could be attached to the spending bill I wrote about yesterday. (As I noted yesterday, Congress has until December 11th to approve new spending legislation or pass a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown.) > On Dec 1, 2020, at 2:41 PM, Jeff Carter <jcarter@literacypolicy.org> wrote: > > A couple of notes cribbed mostly from CEF… > > FY 2021 Appropriations. As most of you know, the federal government is being funded right now via a continuing resolution (CR) that was passed back in September. CRs are legislative vehicles that essentially keep things funded at current (in this case, Fiscal Year 2020) levels when appropriations bills haven’t been negotiated and passed by October 1 — the start of the federal fiscal year. The current CR is set to expire on December 11. So the question is whether they will get a FY 2021 spending bill done by then or have to pass another CR to stretch the deadline. > > The Senate and House Appropriations Committee chairs agreed on funding totals for the all 12 appropriations bills just before Thanksgiving. The overall funding total in the House-passed Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill isn’t much different from what was proposed by the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier in November. Most education programs are likely to have their funding frozen at the FY 2020 level or get a small increase. (See CEF’s chart for details <https://cef.org/wp-content/uploads/11.10.20-CEFs-FY-2021-Funding-Table-House-and-Senate-comparison.pdf> — but if you quote from it please be sure to credit their work.) The Senate bill freezes spending on WIOA Title II at last year’s level while the House included a small increase. > > There are a variety of policy and funding issues that are still being fought over in many of the appropriations bills, so there is a distinct possibility that we are going to be looking at option #2 — a new short-term CR to extend current funding for at least a week beyond Dec. 11 so that they'll have more time. > > Committee Chairs. The House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee will announce this week their recommendation to chair the House Appropriations Committee in the upcoming 117th Congress. (This recommendation is rarely overturned when full Democratic Caucus meets to vote on committee chairs.) The race is between Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). Rep. DeLauro, as most of you know, currently chairs the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee. Both DeLauro and Kaptur are members of the House Progressive Caucus, and Rep. Kaptur has been in Congress a LOOOOONG time and thus has some seniority. So there is your lineup of contenders. I was at one time given the impression that DeLauro was a cinch to move up to this role, but CEF is hearing that while she is still the favorite, the vote is close. > > Jeff > > > Jeff Carter > Cell: (202) 374-4387 | @jeffcrtr > > > > Occasionally Chimes In on Policy > National Coalition for Literacy > www.national-coalition-literacy.org <http://www.national-coalition-literacy.org/> > jcarter@literacypolicy.org <mailto:jcarter@literacypolicy.org> > Former 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> > > > _______________________________________________ > National Coalition for Literacy Members mailing list > Members@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org > To unsubscribe: http://lists.national-coalition-literacy.org/mailman/listinfo/members_lists.national-coalition-literacy.org