Greetings,
I thought some of the discussion at this morning’s CEF meeting here in DC might be helpful followup to our policy call discussion yesterday. Today’s guest was Robin Juliano, who now works on the House Labor-HHS-ED Appropriations Subcommittee Democratic staff.
Before Robin arrived, Sheryl said she felt that the odds are about 60-40 that there will be an omnibus and not a CR (Continuing Resolution). Robin later said that Democratic staff have not been asked to do any CR contingency planning, which suggests that there is strong confidence that an omnibus appropriations bill will be worked out by April 28, when the current CR expires.
Many in the room today reported a general feeling among staff that the final FY 17 Labor-H appropriations bill numbers are trending more towards the Senate bill from last summer. This is not especially relevant for AEFLA — you’ll recall that BOTH the Senate and House bills level fund AEFLA at the FY 16 level. But maybe for other programs you follow — I didn’t go back and look at the old Senate bill.
That doesn’t mean that the final bill couldn’t include a cut to AEFLA, but Sarah reported that Senate staff don't think there will be much change in what we saw in the earlier bill. So, as I mentioned yesterday on the policy call, we need to stay vigilant, but level funding in FY 17 seems likely.
Assuming FY 17 omnibus goes forward, Robin feels pretty confident year-round Pell will be included. She also thinks the movement to restore year-round Pell grants is good case study on how to achieve a good policy goal with a grassroots component in this tough environment.
Sec. DeVos's rescheduled committee hearing on the President’s FY 18 budget for education may be as early as the first week of May. For obvious reasons, they would prefer to do this once Trump’s complete proposed FY 18 budget is released.
One other FY 18 point: Robin thinks there may be broader support for CNCS and AmeriCorps then there was a few years ago when Republicans were so eager to kill it. So maybe there is hope there.
Finally, a couple of folks at the meeting have heard that the Perkins/CTE reauthorization bill may move in May.
Jeff
Greetings,
I thought some of the discussion at this morning’s CEF meeting here in DC might be helpful followup to our policy call discussion yesterday. Today’s guest was Robin Juliano, who now works on the House Labor-HHS-ED Appropriations Subcommittee Democratic staff.
Before Robin arrived, Sheryl said she felt that the odds are about 60-40 that there will be an omnibus and not a CR (Continuing Resolution). Robin later said that Democratic staff have not been asked to do any CR contingency planning, which suggests that there is strong confidence that an omnibus appropriations bill will be worked out by April 28, when the current CR expires.
Many in the room today reported a general feeling among staff that the final FY 17 Labor-H appropriations bill numbers are trending more towards the Senate bill from last summer. This is not especially relevant for AEFLA — you’ll recall that BOTH the Senate and House bills level fund AEFLA at the FY 16 level. But maybe for other programs you follow — I didn’t go back and look at the old Senate bill.
That doesn’t mean that the final bill couldn’t include a cut to AEFLA, but Sarah reported that Senate staff don't think there will be much change in what we saw in the earlier bill. So, as I mentioned yesterday on the policy call, we need to stay vigilant, but level funding in FY 17 seems likely.
Assuming FY 17 omnibus goes forward, Robin feels pretty confident year-round Pell will be included. She also thinks the movement to restore year-round Pell grants is good case study on how to achieve a good policy goal with a grassroots component in this tough environment.
Sec. DeVos's rescheduled committee hearing on the President’s FY 18 budget for education may be as early as the first week of May. For obvious reasons, they would prefer to do this once Trump’s complete proposed FY 18 budget is released.
One other FY 18 point: Robin thinks there may be broader support for CNCS and AmeriCorps then there was a few years ago when Republicans were so eager to kill it. So maybe there is hope there.
Finally, a couple of folks at the meeting have heard that the Perkins/CTE reauthorization bill may move in May.
Jeff
