The two FY 2020 government funding omnibus packages are now public. Here is the relevant info for WIOA Title II: https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20191216/BILLS-116HR1865SA-JES-DIVISION-A.pdf Page 219: Jeff Jeff Carter Cell: (202) 374-4387 | @jeffcrtr 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> Senior Policy Advisor to the Board of Directors, National Coalition for Literacy Former President, Committee for Education Funding www.national-coalition-literacy.org <http://www.national-coalition-literacy.org/> | cef.org jcarter@literacypolicy.org <mailto:jcarter@literacypolicy.org>

Following up from yesterday, a bit more detail: The final Labor-HHS-Education bill received a base increase of $4.9 billion over the FY 2019 level — $6.8 billion below the House-passed level but $4.7 billion above the bill proposed but never taken up by the Senate — which, as you will recall, had basically no increase at all... Within that total, the bill provides a net total of $72.8 billion for the Department of Education, an increase of $1.3 billion compared with enacted fiscal 2019 funding. (Actually, for reasons not worth getting into related to Pell surplus rescissions — see below — there was actually a “net” gain of about $1.5 billion) Within THAT total, as I reported yesterday, adult education (Title II of WIOA) got an increase of $15 million over FY 2019 enacted levels — a total allocation of $657 million. Importantly, almost every education program received a funding increase in this bill. So it would have been surprising not to see an increase here, especially since the House strategy going not negotiations was to push for increases across the board. Note that this increase is not as much as what the House had proposed last May in their bill, which would have added $23,045 to the state grants line item, bringing it up to $ 665,000. It looks like this pattern was repeated for other programs in the final bill — that is, they compromised by the Senate agreeing to include an increase, but a lower increase than the House proposed. As usual, national leadership for WIOA Title II was once again flat-funded. As far as other education programs go, possibly of most significance to this group is the $150 increase to the Pell Grant maximum award for the 2020-2021 academic year ($6,195 -> $6,345). (The bill also rescinds $500 million from the Pell Grant surplus. I think we have talked about this before — this is an annoying trick that they often do to loosen up dollars for other things that want to fund. It does not impact student eligibility or award levels, so it kind of flies under the radar for anyone outside of the Pell advocacy community. The problem with making these rescissions is more long-term — if demand for Pell goes up — as it often does during a recession — this “surplus" is sometimes needed. So raiding the surplus fund could create fiscal solvency issues for the program in the future.) One Labor Dept. thing not included the CEF charts that may be of interest: there is a new $40 million "Strengthening Community College Training Grants" program — a successor to the old Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant program (TAACCCT). CEF (preliminary) chart is attached, for those of you who follow other education programs. Jeff > On Dec 16, 2019, at 5:29 PM, Jeff Carter <jcarter@literacypolicy.org> wrote: > > The two FY 2020 government funding omnibus packages are now public. Here is the relevant info for WIOA Title II: > > https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20191216/BILLS-116HR1865SA-JES-DIVISION-A.pdf <https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20191216/BILLS-116HR1865SA-JES-DIVISION-A.pdf> > > Page 219: > > <PastedGraphic-1.png> > > > Jeff > > > Jeff Carter > Cell: (202) 374-4387 | @jeffcrtr > > > > 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> > > Senior Policy Advisor to the Board of Directors, > National Coalition for Literacy > Former President, > Committee for Education Funding > www.national-coalition-literacy.org <http://www.national-coalition-literacy.org/> | cef.org <http://cef.org/> > jcarter@literacypolicy.org <mailto:jcarter@literacypolicy.org>

Two other notes: I know this is more in my lane than most of yours, but for what its worth, the Congressional Progressive Caucus has declared formal opposition to one of the two FY 2020 minibuses being voted on today — the one funding the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense. Will not affect the ultimate passage of either bill. Once the two bills have cleared the House and Senate, the President still has to sign them… I haven’t heard anything suggesting that he wouldn’t, but as we all know this president is unpredictable and in the middle being impeached, so I wouldn’t assume anything requiring his signature is a 100% lock. Someone told me — maybe it was someone on this list? — that the reason they split this into two omnibus bills was because he has complained in the past about having to sign one big spending bill. Which is stupid, but believable. Jeff > On Dec 17, 2019, at 12:36 PM, Jeff Carter <jcarter@literacypolicy.org> wrote: > > Following up from yesterday, a bit more detail: > The final Labor-HHS-Education bill received a base increase of $4.9 billion over the FY 2019 level — $6.8 billion below the House-passed level but $4.7 billion above the bill proposed but never taken up by the Senate — which, as you will recall, had basically no increase at all... > Within that total, the bill provides a net total of $72.8 billion for the Department of Education, an increase of $1.3 billion compared with enacted fiscal 2019 funding. (Actually, for reasons not worth getting into related to Pell surplus rescissions — see below — there was actually a “net” gain of about $1.5 billion) > Within THAT total, as I reported yesterday, adult education (Title II of WIOA) got an increase of $15 million over FY 2019 enacted levels — a total allocation of $657 million. Importantly, almost every education program received a funding increase in this bill. So it would have been surprising not to see an increase here, especially since the House strategy going not negotiations was to push for increases across the board. > Note that this increase is not as much as what the House had proposed last May in their bill, which would have added $23,045 to the state grants line item, bringing it up to $ 665,000. It looks like this pattern was repeated for other programs in the final bill — that is, they compromised by the Senate agreeing to include an increase, but a lower increase than the House proposed. > As usual, national leadership for WIOA Title II was once again flat-funded. > As far as other education programs go, possibly of most significance to this group is the $150 increase to the Pell Grant maximum award for the 2020-2021 academic year ($6,195 -> $6,345). (The bill also rescinds $500 million from the Pell Grant surplus. I think we have talked about this before — this is an annoying trick that they often do to loosen up dollars for other things that want to fund. It does not impact student eligibility or award levels, so it kind of flies under the radar for anyone outside of the Pell advocacy community. The problem with making these rescissions is more long-term — if demand for Pell goes up — as it often does during a recession — this “surplus" is sometimes needed. So raiding the surplus fund could create fiscal solvency issues for the program in the future.) > One Labor Dept. thing not included the CEF charts that may be of interest: there is a new $40 million "Strengthening Community College Training Grants" program — a successor to the old Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant program (TAACCCT). > CEF (preliminary) chart is attached, for those of you who follow other education programs. > Jeff > >> On Dec 16, 2019, at 5:29 PM, Jeff Carter <jcarter@literacypolicy.org <mailto:jcarter@literacypolicy.org>> wrote: >> >> The two FY 2020 government funding omnibus packages are now public. Here is the relevant info for WIOA Title II: >> >> https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20191216/BILLS-116HR1865SA-JES-DIVISION-A.pdf <https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20191216/BILLS-116HR1865SA-JES-DIVISION-A.pdf> >> >> Page 219: >> >> <PastedGraphic-1.png> >> >> >> Jeff >> >> >> Jeff Carter >> Cell: (202) 374-4387 | @jeffcrtr >> >> >> >> 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> >> >> Senior Policy Advisor to the Board of Directors, >> National Coalition for Literacy >> Former President, >> Committee for Education Funding >> www.national-coalition-literacy.org <http://www.national-coalition-literacy.org/> | cef.org <http://cef.org/> >> jcarter@literacypolicy.org <mailto:jcarter@literacypolicy.org> > > <CEF's FY 2020 Funding Table - Final 2020 levels 12.16.19.pdf> > _______________________________________________ > 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