Empathy List Archives

On Wednesday, March 21, 2018, 2:58:37 PM EDT, Gary A. Officer <gofficer@ssa-i.org> wrote:  

        Omnibus text is out, but until we get a look at the tables, not sure how we did. The text (this is typical) just gives the lump sum for CTE and AEFLA...Jeff---- On Wed, 21 Mar 2018 12:57:19 -0400  Me<jcarter@literacypolicy.org> wrote ----FY 2018 AppropriationsHere is a riddle for you: what’s big and fat and full of riders and still not released?Congress was supposed to release their $1.3 trillion FY 2018 omnibus text before midnight last night, but didn't.  The bill contains the long-awaited fiscal 2018 spending levels and has to pass by Friday to keep the government open. But with no text in sight, it’s not clear they’ll make it. Last night I started hearing talk about passing a little short-term CR to give them a few extra days. However, just now (11:30) I’m reading reports that — while all of the major issues have yet to be resolved — congressional leaders were meeting this morning to "wrap up" the negotiations. So it might be out by the time you read this.Four of the 12 subcommittees had yet to close out their bills as of last night —I know Labor-HHS-Ed (“our” bill, in the sense that this is where the adult ed title II appropriation lies) is one of them. Assuming they finish today, the House is still aiming to vote on the entire bill Thursday.It will be interesting if they don’t get it together in time and pass a CR so they can work on it over the weekend. I can’t imagine that Republicans really want to be in town when all those kids are here for the "March for Our Lives" rally Saturday.FY 2019 Appropriations: House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee HearingYesterday, as you know, Betsy DeVos testified before the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee on the President’s FY 2019 education budget request. An archived video of the hearing can be seen here:https://appropriations.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=395133Unlike past years, there were no questions about adult ed, but it’s an interesting hearing to watch. As I mentioned yesterday, there was bipartisan criticism of the Secretary throughout the hearing, although the Democrats were more, let’s say, expressive, as well as aggressive, in their questioning. But in my view, the quiet but forceful admonishments from Republicans were more interesting. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, told DeVos that he was not very happy with her staff’s lack of communicativeness — he said he was "concerned that we have kind of a disconnect here.” He told DeVos, "You've been on the job for a while" and "it's important for members who pay the bill to meet with the secretaries before they come to the committee.”In addition, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the Republican chairman of the committee, quietly and effectively challenged her on some comments made by a staffer on federal impact aid program during his questioning —  looked to me like he knew a lot more about the program than they did. (I can't help but imagine what it would be like to have a Republican on the Hill advocating for adult ed the way Cole advocates for impact aid) Cole also told DeVos that he doesn’t understand why the Trump administration continues to request cuts that Congress has rejected before.Department of Education ReorganizationThe other news I mentioned yesterday was the the Times had obtained a copy of DeVos’s reorganization proposal.https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/us/politics/education-secretary-devos-reorganization-plan-union.htmlI thought there would be more questions about this yesterday, especially about her dismantling of the Budget Service office. This is real insider-baseball stuff, but it’s worth knowing about. This move is actually big deal, IMO.  The Budget Service office is responsible for  pulling together the various parts of the President’s budget proposal each year, executing the budget, presenting budget materials and tables to Congress and the public, responding to questions from Congress, and aiding the Secretary when she appears before Congress (the Director of the Budget Service usually appears with the Secretary and provides details for the amore technical questions about the budget).  Basically, everyone involved in federal education budget policy  — both inside the department and outside — rely heavily on this office’s work and expertise. Nonetheless, DeVos is dismantling the Budget Service and has already reassigned the Director of the Budget Service, Erica Navarro, (who IMO along with many others does an excellent job), to the Office of Civil Rights to be deputy assistant secretary for management and planning and getting out of Devos’s way. Erica and her team basically know everything about how the federal education budget works, and the political folks generally don’t, whatever the administration. Political appointees really need these folks, even if they don’t think they do, and even if they find them annoying when they tell them that they can't do something they want to do. And DeVos is doing this even though the move is opposed by the Office of Management and Budget. Politico was told by a department spokesperson that the reorganization is designed to “ensure policy drives budget decisions, not the other way around..” Politico also reports that political appointees blamed Budget Service staff for leaks of budget material last year and this year. And that’s interesting. How do they define "leaks?” My sense is thais’a pretty expansive definition. As I mentioned the office is very responsive and forthcoming with information. They take calls from education groups and give even people like me information! Erica would come to CEF meetings and share info there. Is this information sharing considered “leaks?" Not by my definition — but I suspect that some folks on the DeVos team didn’t like this. The Times also reported on other aspects of the reorganization plan — and look, here we were worried about adult ed going over to Labor when looks like in fact they want some some Labor programs to go over to Education.For the most part, Ms. DeVos’s restructuring plan involves consolidating offices, such as merging the office that oversees charter and private schools with the main office that oversees elementary and secondary education in public schools. The plan would eliminate the Office of the Under Secretary, a position that has helped shape higher education policy, and create a new Office of Lifelong Learning. It would also reduce the number of political appointees.The proposal also seeks to acquire several programs run by the Department of Labor. The department proposed to take over adult and unemployed worker programs run by the Labor Department, and to redirect the funding for those programs to federal Pell grants so that unemployed workers can enroll in higher education and vocational programs. The department would acquire an “out-of-school youth” program from the Labor Department, as well as a program that helps reintegrate ex-prisoners.House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee Hearing on the Role of Work in Welfare ProgramsThis might be of interest: The House Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development held a hearing last week titled, “Strengthening Access and Accountability to Work in Welfare Programs.” During his benign remarks, Chairman Guthrie (R-KY) touted the benefits of work requirements in public benefit programs. More info:https://edworkforce.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=402558Jeff _______________________________________________ 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

members@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org

Federal Update - LONG!