Update on Fiscal Year 2011 Appropriations

With the federal fiscal year 2010 closing on September 30, and still no federal budget approved for the coming year, Congress took action last week to prevent a government shutdown. Both the House and the Senate passed – and the President signed into law – a continuing resolution (CR) to allow continued federal government operations through December 3, 2010. Under the CR, all federal education programs – subject to annual appropriations – will continue to be funded at fiscal year 2010 levels.

Many advocates in the early education community have been wondering whether the budget for the next fiscal year will include money for the Early Learning Challenge Fund – a highly anticipated new program that was set aside in last-minute health reform negotiations last spring. Some saw a glimmer of hope in July when the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education voted to appropriate $300 million for the program. But budget negotiations stalled. The CR, by definition, includes no new funding so advocates will just have to keep waiting.

Also kept waiting will be programs like Head Start and subsidized childcare centers. Until the FY 2011 budget is passed, they won’t know if they will be able to continue serving all the children funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).  (Two organizations – the Center for Law and Social Policy and the National Women’s Law Center — will be hosting an audio conference on Oct. 6 that should provide more detail.)

Every year, 12 separate appropriations bills designate funds for about one-third of the U.S. government. When Congress fails to pass those bills by September 30, they typically opt to pass a CR to keep government running without a final budget.

Jenny Cohen over at Ed Money Watch provides an analysis on what the CR means for education funding, including details on the Child Nutrition Act, which was set to expire on September 30, 2010. The Child Nutrition Act authorizes funding for school meal and after school food programs. It also funds benefits for low-income women and infants and adult feeding programs. The CR allows all programs authorized under the Child Nutrition Act to continue through December 3.

The Child Nutrition Act was just one of several special situations, referred to as “anomalies,” that required additional action included in the CR. Anomalies most often refer to programs that were up for reauthorization in fiscal year 2010 and therefore in danger of being shut down.

Another “anomaly” important to the early childhood community is the extension of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and its related programs such as the Child Care Entitlement to States program.

For the time being, most federal programs will continue to be funded at FY 2010 levels.  We won’t know the official FY 2011 levels of funding for education programs – which could still be increased or decreased from FY 2010 levels – until Congress returns from fall recess (and November elections) to pass the federal budget. As Ed Money Watch points out, “it’s likely that education funding could end up in a messy, end-of-year omnibus appropriations bill that encompasses many of the 12 individual appropriations bills.”

Stay tuned. Early Ed Watch will continue to report on FY 2011 federal education appropriations — a list of our posts on President Obama’s budget request and Congress’s actions to date can be found here.

For a complete timeline of the fiscal year 2011 appropriations process, read this analysis from the Federal Education Budget Project.

For a detailed explanation of the fiscal year 2011 Congressional Budget Actions, read this policy paper from the Federal Education Budget Project.

And for more on the proposed funding so far for birth to 12^th grade education and childcare programs, read these previous posts from Early Ed Watch: FY 2011 Appropriations Part 1 and Part 2.