After intense debate and several delays, the FY 15 appropriations “cromnibus” was approved by both chambers of Congress. The House passed the bill by a vote of 219-206 last Thursday evening, and the Senate followed on Saturday night by a vote of 56-40. Both votes were bipartisan, with a number of the most conservative and most liberal members of Congress opposing the bill, albeit for very different reasons.
The House is now adjourned until 2015, but the Senate remains in session in an attempt to complete work on a few more items, including a tax extenders package and several executive nominations.
As we reported last week, the final appropriations bill maintains funding for Perkins for the 2015-16 school year, despite cuts in many areas of the bill. This is the earliest work has been complete on an appropriations bill in a number of years, which provides added security to schools as budgets are being planned. It also sets us up well to begin focusing on FY 16 funding in January, which will once again be a challenge due to low budget caps and conservative focus on cutting domestic spending.
In one other piece of good news, we have heard from sources at the Department of Education that the small across-the-board cut that was included in the first continuing resolution and applied to the Perkins October 1 allocation for some states is likely to be restored. It has not been decided if those funds will be distributed separately to states or rolled into the next scheduled allocation on July 1. We will be following this closely and will report on any further details!
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