On Tuesday the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education held a markup of and approved by voice vote their FY 2011 appropriations bill. While the text of the bill is not available, the subcommittee did release a summary of what’s included in the bill. There is no mention of Perkins funding in the summary, but we have heard from the Committee for Education Funding that Perkins was flat funded in the Subcommittee’s bill. We have also learned that the President’s proposed consolidation of Tech Prep was not in this bill, or the House Appropriations Subcommittee’s bill that they marked up earlier this month.
Some highlights of this bill:
- An increase of nearly $163.6 million over the fiscal year 2010 level for state grants for job training and employment services, for a total of $3.8 billion.
- $25 million increase for the Green Jobs Innovation Fund, for a total of $65 million.
- $14.9 billion for Title I grants to local education agencies for improving education for low-income students. This amount is $450 million higher than the budget request and the fiscal year 2010 funding level.
- $242 million for five new Workforce Innovation Funds, which will be administered jointly by the Secretaries of Labor and Education, consist of $55 million for dislocated workers, $35 million for adult job training, $95 million for youth, $27 million for disabled individuals and $30 million for adult education programs.
The bill now moves to the full Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday, but Sen. Tom Harkin (IA), chair of the subcommittee, has indicated that the bill will not go to the floor for a vote before December.
Tags: appropriations, budget, Congress, federal grants, federal legislation, green jobs, Job training, NCLB/ESEA, Perkins