HI everyone, Sorry that the member meeting last week conflicted with PSR's board meeting and I was not able to see any of you who were in town. This morning I put together some notes left over from last week and thought I'd just review where things stand on FY 2020 appropriations. Most of this I've already sent to the list, but just in case... House Last Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee held a markup of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor/HHS) bill. The bill was approved by the Committee on a partisan vote of 30-23, with funding levels for a few programs actually increased even further than the bill that came out of the Labor/HHS Appropriations Subcommittee. This was thanks to an amendment from Rep. DeLauro (D-CT) that added an additional $103 million for various programs, including several of interest to members of this list: $10 million for career technical education state grants $7 million for adult education state grants $5 million to continue the open text book pilot within the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education $5 million for magnet schools $5 million for IDEA preschool grants $7 million for the Library Services Technology Act $3 million for the Museum Services Act For Title II of WIOA (adult education), the bottom line is that the final bill calls for: $672.000  million for state grants $ 13.712  million for national leadership $685.712  TOTAL Leafing through the proposed funding levels to other education programs, it's worth noting that an increase was proposed for nearly everything, and that that the increase to adult education was one of the smaller percentage increases proposed. Just to put things in perspective... The bill is expected to be considered by the full House as early as June, but no official announcement has been made. Senate The Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to release and consider its version of the FY2020 Labor/HHS appropriations bill, or any other funding bill for that matter. Senator McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, has been pretty clear that the Senate won’t start work on FY 2020 appropriations until a budget deal is enacted to raise the caps on defense and non-defense discretionary (NDD) spending.  You'll recall the House went ahead set allocations for each committee without such a deal in place. Their total discretionary limit increases non-defense discretionary (NDD) spending substantially in FY 2020 - by $34 billion over the FY 2019 level and by $88 billion over the sequester-level still in law for FY 2020. It’s quite possible -- perhaps likely -- that negotiations to raise the caps won’t happen until the fall. If so, don't expect the Senate to take any action on FY 2020 appropriations bills until then. (Thanks again to CEF, from which a lot of this info was compiled.) Bills and Hearings from Last Week of Possible Interest The House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment held a hearing last week , "The Cost of Non-Completion: Improving Student Outcomes in Higher Education," that might be worth a look. Video and witness statements available here: https://edlabor.house.gov/hearings/the-cost-of-non-completion-improving-student-outcomes-in-higher-education_ H.R.2635 - A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to establish an Office of Correctional Education, and for other purposes, was introduced by Rep. Cummings (D-MD) https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2635 H.R.2563 - A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to direct the Secretary of Education to issue guidance and recommendations for institutions of higher education on removing criminal and juvenile justice questions from their application for admissions process. Introduced by Rep. Richmond (D-LA) https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2563?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22H.R.2563%22%5D%7D&s=2&r=1 A companion to the above bill was introduced in the Senate, S.1338, by Senator Schatz (D-HI): https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/1338?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22S.1338%22%5D%7D&s=1&r=1 What else are you all following or working on? Jeff Jeff Carter Cell: (202) 374-4387 | @jeffcrtr Senior Policy Advisor National Coalition for Literacy http://www.national-coalition-literacy.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 http://www.psr.org/ | mailto:jcarter@psr.org