FEBP Releases Brief on Latest Developments in 2012 Education Funding

The fiscal year 2012 budget process has been anything but typical or predictable. While fiscal year 2012 starts in just a few weeks on October 1, 2011, the annual appropriations process is far from complete, and funding for federal education programs has not yet been finalized. Nevertheless, congressional action in the months that have led up to the start of fiscal year 2012 will have important effects on education funding levels set in the appropriations process as well as for other programs, such as student loans and education tax benefits.

The New America Foundation’s Federal Education Budget Project (FEBP) today released a brief entitled Congressional Budget Action for Fiscal Year 2012 and its Impact on Education Funding, explaining how the congressional budget process affects education funding, with special emphasis on the unique circumstances of the fiscal year 2012 budget process.  The brief includes:

• A summary of the traditional budget process and how it affects federal education programs;
• A series of budget tables that illustrate past and current appropriations limits;
• An explanation of the Budget Control Act of 2011, including funding limits and sequestration rules; and
• An analysis of little-understood budget loopholes, such as advance appropriations, that may have significant effects on the fiscal year 2012 education budget.

The fiscal year 2012 budget process has been an especially confusing one, thanks to passage of the debt ceiling agreement (the Budget Control Act of 2011), the creation of the congressional “supercommittee,” and wide disparities in the limits on appropriations in the House of Representatives and the Senate. 

In the issue brief released today, FEBP Director Jason Delisle demystifies the fiscal year 2012 federal budget process and the Budget Control Act and explains how education funding will be affected.

To download the brief, click here.