On July 27, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its FY 24 Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education Appropriations bill on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 26-2. Despite the tight budget caps enforced by the debt limit deal, the bill contained an additional $40 million for the Perkins Basic State Grant program! This is a huge step in a year where funding increases will be very hard to secure. Overall, the bill provides significantly more resources to education and workforce development programs than the House bill, including a very small net increase for education funding over last year (approximately .2% or $147 million).
The Senate bill does not eliminate any education programs, although most programs are frozen at their FY 23 levels and a few have minor cuts. In addition to Perkins, other programs receiving increases include Title I, IDEA, Pell grants, Head Start, student aid administration, Student Success and Academic Enrichment Grants (ESEA Title IV), and Teacher Quality Partnerships. Most workforce programs were also level funded, with a small increase for apprenticeships.
The Senate has now approved all 12 of its appropriations bills at the Committee level on a bipartisan basis, and the bills next head to the full Senate. The House has approved all but two bills (one of which is the Labor, HHS, and Education bill) at the Committee level, and one bill has passed the full House; however, all House bills are partisan. Action is now paused in both chambers for the August recess.
Next steps for the appropriations process are uncertain, as some House members are asking for even more cuts than their Labor, HHS and Education bill initially included – and the Senate and White House will not agree to those cuts. Your advocacy will be critical to attempt to maintain the higher level for Perkins included in the Senate bill, as well as the Senate funding levels for programs across the education and workforce spectrum!
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