Recently, congressional leaders signaled their intent to avoid moving forward with a long-term funding bill before the end of the year. As we reported in September, the House and Senate passed a stopgap continuing resolution (CR) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 to provide temporary funding for the federal government through December 9. The CR is intended to put the federal budget on autopilot by continuing the current funding levels for federal programs, including Perkins, until a long-term agreement can be reached. However, this CR also included an across-the-board cut to keep overall spending within the required budget caps for the year. Because of the way Perkins funds are budgeted and dispersed, the cut impacted Perkins Basic State Grant advance funding that began rolling out to states on October 1.
Based on revised figures from the U.S. Department of Education, 30 states saw reductions in their Perkins October allocations. The cut could be restored (and has routinely been in years past) if Congress approves a full-year funding bill, but at the urging of the incoming Trump Administration, the House and Senate leadership are planning to put off any consideration of a long-term bill until late March at the earliest. This ongoing budget dysfunction will not only create funding uncertainty for states and local CTE programs who need to prepare budgets for the 2017-18 school year, it will also cause confusion when Congress is supposed to begin work on FY 2018 funding in the coming months. Tell your legislators that they need to stop kicking the can down the road. Let them know that they need to pass a full-year funding bill that could restore cuts to Perkins.
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