House Could Set Education Funding Back to Year 2001 to Fund Defense

Last week, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee circulated a proposal that would shift fiscal year 2014 funding from health care, job training, and education programs to military and national security programs. (Fiscal year 2014 starts October 1, 2013.) Just how big of a hit does that mean for education programs? Put it this way, the cuts the House Republicans have in mind for the upcoming fiscal year are four times larger than those under sequestration. That is, take education funding—already lower due to sequestration—and cut it again four times over.

Last month we explained in the issue brief, Federal Education Budget Update: Fiscal Year 2013 Recap and Fiscal Year 2014 Early Analysis, that House Republicans had big cuts to education programs in mind when they passed their budget resolution.

The Budget Control Act of 2011 limits fiscal year 2014 spending on appropriations (including most education programs) some $18 billion below the 2013 post-sequester level. House Republicans want to follow that limits, but they want to go a step further. They are proposing to increase funding for defense and national security programs while staying within that cap. That means everything else has to give.

The latest development, the release of the House 302(b) suballocations, provides the first look at what broad categories of programs will bear the brunt of the increase-defense-and-cut-the-rest policy that House Republicans are pursuing. The 302(b) suballocations are specified amounts that each appropriations subcommittee will be granted by the full House Appropriations Committee to design appropriations bills for the Department of Education and other federal agencies for the upcoming fiscal year.

Final appropriations in fiscal year 2012 for programs covered by the Labor-Health and Human Services (HHS)-Education Appropriations Subcommittee totaled $157 billion. In 2013, after the sequester, it is approximately $150 billion. Under the House proposal for 2014, the figure would fall to $122 billion.   

Democrats have expressed some concerns about the disproportionate cuts to social programs and welfare spending. And although the House Appropriations Committee has voted for the 302(b) suballocations and begun voting on defense spending bills, the Labor-HHS-Education 2014 spending bill would have to be approved both by the full House and Senate, so the cuts may never come to pass.

And there’s another reason the House Republicans are unlikely to succeed with their proposal: The last time Congress provided about $122 billion for the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill was in fiscal year 2002, without factoring in inflation. Do House Republicans really want to erase all of the funding gains for education made under the Obama administration and the Bush administration?

Still, as we warned in our budget brief last month, “an overall appropriations limit that conforms to the BCA and the House-passed budget resolution will almost certainly force spending reductions for some education programs.”  As the 2014 budget debate progresses through the halls of Congress, members will be considering whether or not they want to follow through with the reality created by a law they passed two years ago.