Jeff et al, Thanks again for all your work with CEF and passing on these good updates. It is important that adult basic education be more prominent with this important group and you have helped greatly in assuring we are better represented. In reference to the State of the Union I have attached a statement from ProLiteracy regarding the President’s remarks about free tuition for community college. We see this as another opportunity to point out the value of adult basic education in getting students ready to take advantage of such a proposal. Feel free to share as appropriate. Peter PETER A. WAITE | Executive Vice President ________________________________ ProLiteracy<http://www.proliteracy.org/> | 104 Marcellus Street | Syracuse, NY 13204 p 315.214-2460 | f 315.422.6369 | pwaite@proliteracy.org<mailto:pwaite@proliteracy.org> Find us and follow us on Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/pages/ProLiteracy/59618669707> and Twitter<http://twitter.com/#!/_ProLiteracy_>. Help ProLiteracy advance the cause of adult literacy.<http://www.proliteracy.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=971> From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Carter Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2016 6:51 PM To: National Coalition for Literacy Members List <members@lists.national-coalition-literacy.org> Subject: [NCL Members] Fwd: Wednesday Update NCL Members, Here is Joel’s latest update. This is a great example of the wealth of information, and more importantly, the insights, that Joel brings to CEF. He’s really going to be difficult to replace. Highlights: * Not a lot here directly related to us, although you’ll note in item #3 a reference to WIOA (the vocational rehabilitation programs that were transferred from ED to DOL under WIOA made the increase to ED under the omnibus larger than it appears). * Item #5 is great is you just want a quick rundown of where we are on the FY 2017 budget/appropriations process. * The President's budget will be released on Tuesday, February 9th. * Tom Skelly is moving on from his role as ED’s Budget Director - I only mention this because he has been great to work with whenever I’ve had questions about the adult ed budget. Jeff Begin forwarded message: From: Joel Packer <jpacker@cef.org<mailto:jpacker@cef.org>> Subject: Wednesday Update Date: January 13, 2016 at 3:26:28 PM EST To: Joel Packer <jpacker@cef.org<mailto:jpacker@cef.org>> 1. CEF Meeting: We will hold our first regular Friday meeting of the year, this Friday, January 15. We’re meeting at AACTE, 1307 New York Ave, NW, First floor. Our guest speaker will be Dick Meltzer, Policy Director, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. As always, we’ll start at 9 AM with social time/breakfast, with the meeting itself starting at 9:30 AM. For those not able to attend in person, Call-in #: 1-877-885-3221 PIN: 247-4788#. Click here for the agenda<https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B19p6j32JwToZ3ZuZjBFZkJVZDQ/view?usp=sharing> and here for the updated meeting schedule<https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B19p6j32JwToTm91T0k4cXZNRGM/view?usp=sharing>. 2. CEF Committees: Thanks to everyone who signed up to be on a CEF committee. We are currently updating the email list for each of those. If you have not yet signed up, please do so here<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tEZ-BUnajASRChJsNE_qkxj6alIA9hSlBxVbbl2ltcA/edit?usp=sharing> (note we have not yet added those who signed up on the paper list at the retreat). 3. FY 2016 Education Appropriations: The Department of Education has posted a slightly updated FY 2016 budget table: FY 2016 Congressional Action (last updated 01/11/2016), in PDF [264KB]<http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget16/16action.pdf> and MS Excel [421KB]<http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget16/16action.xls>. There are changes in spending shown for some mandatory programs funding, but nothing on the discretionary side. One point I have failed to mention is that the aggregate increase in ED discretionary funding is larger than it appears. The overall discretionary spending increase is $1.71 billion. However, four vocational rehabilitation programs were transferred from ED to DOL under WIOA. Funding for those four programs’ (Independent living State grants, Independent living Centers, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, and Assistive technology programs) thus is shown as cuts, since they are no longer in ED’s budget. That funding totals $238.2 million. Thus, on a comparable basis, ED discretionary (excluding the four transferred Voc rehab programs) really increased by $1.41 billion (+2.07%), and ED discretionary exclusive of Pell grants and the Voc rehab program also increased by $1.41 billion (+3.09%). 4. State Of The Union: Last night, President Obama delivered his final State of the Union address. The White House has posted<https://www.whitehouse.gov/sotu> the text, a video and lots of related material. Here is a link<https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-record/economy> to what they posted on their education accomplishments. You have to scroll down almost halfway to see details on: Raised Academic Standards in Our Schools and Made New Investments From Preschool Through 12th Grade, Expanded Scholarships, Made Student Loans More Affordable, and Kept College Within Reach for More Americans, and Expanded and Improved Job-Training Opportunities. My favorite reaction to the SOTU is this: “Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who may be the next House education chairman after Kline's retirement, doesn't expect Obama's unfinished business to get any traction. "His proposals are going nowhere," she said in an interview. But she's pleased the president signed ESSA, given its emphasis on local control.” See: Obama: I Will Keep Fighting for Preschool and College Access<http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2016/01/obama_touts_state_of_the_union.html> (Politics K12) Also see: Kline on the State of the Union Address<http://edworkforce.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=400087>. 5. FY 2017 Budget: a. As hopefully everyone now knows, the President's budget will be released on Tuesday, February 9. I expect the Department of Education will hold it usual budget briefing that afternoon. b. CEF will hold our annual “Day After” Budget briefing on February 10, from 1-3 PM in Room 192, Dirksen Senate Office Building. I am working on getting a panel of Hill and Administration staff to discuss the initial reactions to the budget and plans for Congressional action. After the panel, we’ll have a CEF internal discussion of our reaction to the Budget and reach consensus on CEF’s reaction. The meeting is open to all CEF members. No need to RSVP. c. Congressional Budget Resolution: The House Budget Committee plans to markup a FY 2017 budget resolution and the House plans to vote on it. The tentative date for the markup is the week of February 22 with House floor consideration the week of February 29. (The House is out the week of March 7). It is not clear yet whether the Senate Budget Committee will mark up a budget resolution. “Senate Budget Chairman Michael B. Enzi said Tuesday he has not decided whether to write the tax and spending framework for the upcoming fiscal year. “Is there a need for me to make a decision today?” the Wyoming Republican said. “No. So I haven’t made a decision.” See: Budget Resolution Sits on a Back Burner in the Senate<http://www.cq.com/doc/news-4817632?7&srcpage=news&srcsec=cqn> (CQ). There isn't really a substantive need for a budget resolution this year. The budget resolution does just two things: sets the spending caps for both defense and nondefense discretionary spending and provides budget reconciliation instructions to other committees concerning mandatory spending and/or revenues. Since the Congress in October through the Bipartisan Budget Act set the spending caps for both FY 2016 and 2017, there isn't a need for the budget resolution to do so for the FY 2017 appropriations process to get started. In terms of reconciliation, the Republicans used that in FY 16 to pass their partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act, so it is not clear what they would want to use reconciliation for this year. d. CEF Budget response: The new date for the release of CEF’s annual budget response/analysis is now March 31 on a room TBD on Capitol hill. 6. CRS Report on Budget Control Act: CRS has released The Budget Control Act of 2011 as Amended: Budgetary Effects<https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B19p6j32JwToQ1M1eXIwQXhCMWM/view?usp=sharing>. Here are some key findings; • From FY2012 to FY2021, the BCA is projected to cut discretionary spending by $1.5 trillion. • From FY2012 to FY2021, the BCA is projected to cut discretionary spending by $1.5 trillion. Discretionary spending subject to the caps was 4.3% lower on a nominal basis and 9.7% lower on a real (inflation-adjusted) basis than in FY2011, the year before BCA discretionary caps were established. • Real discretionary spending subject to the caps is projected to remain relatively constant from FY2016 to FY2021, with real growth projected to be 1.0% in that time period. • Under the BCA, discretionary spending is projected to average 6.4% of GDP from FY2012 to FY2021, a notable decline from the 9.1% of GDP average from FY1962 to FY2011. From FY2018 on, overall discretionary spending would be below its lowest share of GDP since data were first collected in 1962 (6.0% of GDP), assuming current levels of uncapped discretionary spending.