Congress in Flux Over 2011 Education Spending

The annual appropriations process may be coming to a close and it’s well overdue as fiscal year 2011 began on October 1st, 2010. Nearly all federal education programs are funded one year at a time through the annual appropriations process (student loans are the notable exception). As is the case almost every year, the new funding levels haven’t yet been set in law so Congress has instead funded federal education programs – and most other programs – temporarily until lawmakers adopt full-year funding. But time is running out. The current session of Congress isn’t likely to go past December 24th, so lawmakers need to decide fiscal year 2011 funding levels soon before adjourning.

To finalize funding, some in Congress are calling for an omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2011, which would set the annual funding levels through one giant bill for every program subject to the appropriations process. Others want to continue the temporary funding levels in place now until the newly-elected Congress convenes in January. This would allow the new Congress to pass the funding levels it wants. A third option advocated by some would freeze programs subject to appropriations at the fiscal year 2010 level through fiscal year 2011.

Last week it looked like that latter approach was gaining traction when the U.S. House of Representatives passed a “full-year continuing resolution.” While most education programs would receive the same funding as last year under this bill, the continuing resolution (or CR) includes a number of exceptions for some key education programs. For example, the bill would provide $555 million for the Race to the Top competitive grant program that was created as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. No funding was provided for that program in the fiscal year 2010 appropriations law. The House-passed CR would also provide $23 billion for the Pell Grant program for undergraduate college students, compared to the regular appropriation last year of $17.5 billion. That move ensures the maximum grant will stay at the current $5,550 in the 2011-12 academic year.

The House-passed CR would also make minor cuts to some education programs compared to the prior year levels, though the legislative language is not specific enough to determine which programs are affected. (A press release from the House Appropriations Committee describing spending increases in the CR doesn’t discuss which education programs will face cuts.)

But now it looks like the House-passed CR may be moot. A draft version of an omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2011 is circulating in the Senate today. The rumor is that enough Senators support the draft version of the bill to pass it and that the bill would likely pass in the House, too.

We’ll have more on those latest developments for the fiscal year 2011 education appropriations – including what the omnibus will mean for federal education programs – in our next post.