Long update today. There is a lot going on. See some of you later this week! Jeff --- Budget and Appropriations: Senate On September 18th, in advance of a full Senate vote on a “minibus” of appropriations bills (a package of appropriations bills — but not all of them — bundled together), Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor/HHS), released draft text and a report for a FY 2020 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill.  You’ll recall from last time we spoke that we knew the Subcommittee’s allocation for this bill essentially froze education funding for FY 2020 at FY 19 levels. The actual draft bill appears to be a bit worse than that. According to CEF’s Sarah Abernathy, if you include the bill’s $1.3 billion rescission of previously appropriated funding for Pell grants (which seems fair), the bill cuts discretionary funding for the Department of Education (ED) by more than $700 million (1%) below the FY 2019 level.  WIOA Title II adult education was one of the many programs frozen in the bill at FY 2019 levels.Only a handful of education programs receive a modest increase in the draft bill. Here is the list, according to Sarah Abernathy of CEF: §  $100 million - Student aid administration goes up to $1.8 billion. §  $50 million - Title IV-A goes up to $1.22 billion. §  $25 million - Impact Aid goes up to $1.5 billion. (There are 400 federal impacted school superintendents in town this week, as it happens, who will be up in the Hill thanking their senators for this, btw!) §  $20 million - Charter Schools goes up to $460 million. §  $10 million - Career and Technical education national programsgoes up to $17 million. §  $10 million - School Safety national activities goes up to $105 million. §  $9 million - Education for Homeless Children and Youthgoes up to $103 million. §  $2.5 million - Special Olympics goes up to $20 million. §  $2 million - Special Education technology, media and materials goes up to $30 million. §  $1 million - FIPSE goes up to $6 million for an open textbook pilot. Other education programs outside of ED that get increases are: §  $50 million - Head Startgoes up to $10.1 billion §  $25 million - Child Care and Development Block Grantgoes up to $5.3 billion. §  $1 million - Library Services Technology Actgoes up to $190 million. §  $1 million - Museum Services Actgoes up to $33 million.  As noted above, the bill rescinds $1.3 billion of previously appropriated Pell grant funding. This does not have an immediate effect on the program, in that what they are doing here is cutting money appropriated for this year that hasn’t been spent — thus reducing the size of the “surplus” money for Pell grants. But, still, this is a pretty bad idea, according to every person in the universe who advocates for Pell, because a healthy surplus is important to have on hand in the event that demand for Pell grants suddenly increases on year (which often happens during a recession, for example). The bill increases the maximum Pell grant award by $135, which is good, but it doesn’t provide an increase in new funding to do that, so that bigger award will also be paid for with funds in the surplus.  Of additional possible interest to this group: the Senate draft bill would completely eliminate the $18 million Full-Service Community Schools program. When the full Senate considered the minibus on the 18th, (which included the draft FY2020 Senate Labor/HHS bill), the package failed due to not gaining enough support. Meanwhile, the Appropriations Committee itself never considered the Labor-HHS-Education draft bill. Sarah thinks it’s likely that the Committee at some point in the near future will make some revisions to the way it allocated funding to all 12 of its funding bills, with the Labor-HHS-Education bill likely to get an increase.  I am not as confident as she is, having sat in on many meetings last week with folks on the Hill to talk about other bills. I would expect very modest shuffling of funds at best. §  Press release from the Senate Committee on Appropriations, (which includes a summary of the bill):
https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/fy2020-labor-hhs-and-education-appropriations-bill-released §  Statement by Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL):
https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/shelby-urges-members-to-adhere-to-budget-deal-support-essential-funding-for-military §  Statement by Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-VT):
https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/minority/statement-of-vice-chairman-leahy-d-vt-opposing-the-motion-to-proceed-to-hr-2470- Budget and Appropriations: House Recognizing the reality that none of the 12 government funding bills are going be enacted before current funding runs out on September 30th, the House voted on a continuing resolution (CR) to maintain funding at current fiscal year (FY) levels through November 21. Extending the deadline, in essence, provides more time for the Senate to pass its bills and to conference them with the House-passed versions (the House has passed its versions of all but the Homeland Security and Legislative Branch funding bills). It is expected the Senate will consider the CR this week. §  Press release from the House Appropriations Committee:
https://appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-passes-continuing-resolution §  Statement by House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-NY): https://appropriations.house.gov/news/statements/lowey-floor-remarks-on-hr-4378-continuing-resolution-through-november-21 §  Statement by House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Kay Granger (R-TX): https://republicans-appropriations.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=396681 Budget and Appropriations: What’s Next Bottom line, whatever the final allocation is for the Senate Labor-HHS-Education bill, we are basically going to be looking at a negotiation between the House and the Senate in which the starting point for the Senate is no increase for adult education, and the House starts with a proposed increase of $30 million. I don’t know where they will end up, but there is no doubt in my mind that a substantial number of increases proposed in the House bill will fall by the wayside when this is all said and done. On the other hand, since the Senate did not propose a cut, it seems likely that the worse case is flat funding for adult education in FY 2020. Also, I’m not entirely confident there won’t be snag in this process going forward. It is hard to predict, for example, what the White House may do or say, especially with regard to Wall funding or something else controversial. Department of Labor News On September 19, the Senate HELP Committee held a hearing to hear testimony from Eugene Scalia, who is nominated to serve as our new U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary. Tomorrow at 10am, the Senate HELP Committee will hold an executive session to consider the nomination. §  Statement from HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN): https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=73E7D795-53A7-45BA-A1BE-26290C2B3D7D §  Statement by Ranking Member Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA):
 https://www.help.senate.gov/ranking/newsroom/press/murray-on-secretary-of-labor-nominee-eugene-scalia-president-trump-has-nominated-a-secretary-of-corporate-interests Spoiler alert: Sen. Murray not as crazy about Scalia as Alexander is.
 Bills of Note Speaking of Sen. Murray, on September 17, she and Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) introduced S.2482, which would prohibit the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from implementing its final regulation on the inadmissibility of immigrants on "public charge" grounds.  § Here is the bill: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/2482?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22mazie+hirono%22%5D%7D&s=2&r=3 §  Statement by Sen. Murray: https://www.murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/newsreleases?ID=A81F3C33-48BB-4122-8BCE-823857E95104