On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee passed the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 by a vote of 30 to 23. In an amendment offered by Labor-HHS-Education subcommittee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro, funding for the Perkins Basic State Grant program was given an additional $10 million, on top of the $37.4 million increase that passed the subcommittee last week. This brings the total proposed appropriation level for the Perkins Basic State Grant program in FY20 to just over 1.3 billion, which is $47.4 million above the FY19 enacted level and FY20 President’s budget request.
Now the bill will go to the House floor for consideration by the entire House of Representatives, and a similar process will take place in the Senate before final agreement. Complicating the final passage and agreement between the chambers on funding levels for FY 2020 are the statutory budget caps currently in place on discretionary spending—both for defense and nondefense programs. Congressional leaders are currently in the process of negotiating an increase in these caps, which will be necessary to avoid steep cuts across the federal budget and provide any of the increases suggested by the House. The exact cap agreement will have tremendous influence on the final funding numbers for education programs like Perkins.
You can find our joint press statement with Advance CTE here.
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