After a series of fits and starts, Congress is nearing the finish line on passing the education jobs fund. Today, the Senate invoked cloture on an amendment to the FAA reauthorization bill containing the education jobs fund. The amendment provides $10 billion for education jobs and $16.1 billion for federal Medicaid payments. The funding in this amendment would be fully paid for, and would reduce the deficit by $3 million over ten years and $1.371 billion over eleven years. While the amendment still needs to be passed, the cloture vote marked forward progress on the stalled amendment. If the 30 hours of post-cloture time is not yielded back, that vote will be around 5 pm tomorrow, and if the Senate passes the bill (only 51 votes are needed), it will have to go to the House for a vote. The House left for summer recess last week, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) just announced that the House will be called into session next week to pass the bill once the Senate completes action.
Tags: budget, Congress, funding, Legislation, NCLB/ESEA, Public Policy, teachers