Hope everyone is doing well. A few items that have caught my attention the last couple of weeks… FY 2020 Appropriations As you may recall, the federal government is operating on a continuing resolution (CR) that expires on November 21st, because they couldn’t get FY 2020 bills enacted by the end of September, the end of the federal fiscal year. IMO it’s unlikely that any full-year funding bills will be enacted by November 21st either. Certainly not all of them. For weeks now there have been rumors of a full-year CR (!) that would extend FY2019 funding levels into all of FY 2020. I think this scenario unlikely. What is possible is that they decide to do a year-long CR for some bills where agreement can’t be reached, combined with a package of bills with new funding levels for those where they can agree. Congress is likely to enact a second short-term CR to extend their time to get this all done until sometime in December. Meanwhile, this week the Senate is taking up a package of four spending bills (Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior-Environment, and Transportation-HUD), all of which have strong bipartisan support – which is why they are taking them up. The Labor-HHS-Education bill is not one of those bills. Next up may be a package that includes the Defense funding bill with funding to fight opioids – funding that would normally be in the Labor-HHS-Education bill. The defense bill is a little more problematic, as Democrats object to the President’s transfer of military construction funds to build a border wall. Other Legislation As you know, I advise this group to keep an eye on congressional efforts to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA). Last week, House Education and Labor Committee Democrats released their latest proposal. The bill, H.R.4674, the "College Affordability Act," builds upon House Democrats' previous HEA proposal from the 115th Congress - H.R.6543, the "Aim Higher Act.” Text of the bill: https://edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/SCOTVA_047_xml.pdf Fact sheet: https://edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/The%20College%20Affordability%20Act%20-%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf “Title by Title” summary: https://edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/The%20College%20Affordability%20Act%20-%20Title%20by%20Title.pdf Republican response: https://republicans-edlabor.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=406673 Comings and Goings This may be of interest: U.S. Dept. of Education Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) Johnny Collett has resigned. Mark Allan Schultz will serve as acting assistant secretary. Jeff Jeff Carter Cell: (202) 374-4387 | @jeffcrtr Senior Policy Advisor National Coalition for Literacy www.national-coalition-literacy.org <http://www.national-coalition-literacy.org/> jcarter@literacypolicy.org <mailto:jcarter@literacypolicy.org> Immediate Past President, Committee for Education Funding 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>