On Monday, negotiators published final text and report language for two legislative packages that contain all 12 government funding bills for fiscal year (FY) 2020. These two packages, totaling $1.4 trillion in spending, were negotiated extensively between House and Senate leadership and provide concessions for both parties, allowing them to come to an agreement to alleviate any threat of a government shutdown ahead of Friday’s fiscal deadline (when the current Continuing Resolution expires).
One of the bills, H.R. 1865, contains the Labor-HHS-Education (Labor-H) bill, which received a base increase of $4.9 billion over the FY 2019 level. This final number represents a $6.8 billion decrease from the House-passed level but $4.7 billion increase over the bill proposed, but not acted on, in the Senate—a true compromise between the chambers. Within that total, the bill provides a net total of $72.8 billion for the Department of Education (ED), an increase of approximately $1.3 billion over the 2019 level.
More specifically, the Perkins Basic State Grant was appropriated at $1.283 billion for FY20, which is $20 million, or 1.6%, above the FY19 level. This marks the third straight year that Congress has increased appropriations for the Basic State Grant, bringing the total from $1.118 billion in FY17, to 1.283 billion today. Below are some additional programmatic funding levels, and how they compare to FY19, that are important to ACTE and our membership:
- CTE National programs: $7 million, flat funded from FY19 level
- Federal Work-Study: $1.18 billion, an increase from $1.13 billion in FY19
- Adult Education: $671 million, an increase from $656 million in FY19
- DoL Training and Employment Services programs: $3.611 billion, an increase from $3.502 billion in FY19
- Career Pathways for Youth Grants: $10 million, new program in FY20
- Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants: $2.132 billion, an increase from $2.056 billion in FY19
- ESSA Title IV-A Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants: $1.21 billion, an increase from $1.17 billion in FY19
- Pell Grant: $6,345 for the maximum award, an increase of $150 from FY19 level
On Tuesday, the House passed the measure by a vote of 297 to 120.
12/19 UPDATE: The Senate passed the measure by a vote of 71-23, sending it to the President's desk to be signed into law before the Friday deadline.
Please continue to monitor ACTE’s Policy Watch Blog for updates throughout the funding process.
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