On September 12th, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted on, and passed along party lines, the 302(b) allocations for each of the twelve appropriations bills for fiscal year (FY) 2020. The 302(b) allocation is the total amount of discretionary funds the bill has for all of the programs within it.
The committee essentially flat funded the Labor-HHS-Education (Labor-H) bill, only giving it an increase of $223 million, or .1%, bringing the total to $178.299 billion. This is almost $12 billion less than what the House allocated earlier this year when they passed their version of the bill. During the mark-up, committee Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-VT) offered an alternative allocation that would have given Labor-H an additional $3.3 billion, but it was ultimately not approved.
The future of the Senate Labor-H appropriations measure, and the overall level of Perkins funding, is still unclear after it was abruptly taken off the mark-up calendar last week because of a disagreement over a health-care related amendment. With government funding running out at the end of the month, the Senate must act in order to prevent another government shutdown. What is likely to happen is that both chambers will pass a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) that would extend funding at FY19 levels through the end of November to give them time to work out the FY20 bills.
With a mark-up still on the horizon, and Perkins funding levels still in the balance, we continue to ask you to contact your Senators to urge them to increase Perkins funding in FY20.
9/18 UPDATE: On September 18th, Subcommittee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-MO) released the proposed text for the Senate Labor-H appropriations bill. It provides $71.4 billion for the Department of Education, which is $100 million less than the FY19 enacted levels, and $1.263 billion for the Perkins Basic State Grant, which is the same as the FY19 enacted levels. The funding levels in the draft text are only proposed, and are not the final committee numbers until they hold a markup and vote on the legislation. The committee still has not announced when the markup will take place, which means there is still time for the funding levels to change, including the Perkins Basic State Grant. We still urge you to contact your Senators and ask them to increase Perkins funding in FY20.
If you would like to read the bill text in its entirety, click here.
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