The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education marked up their FY 2012 appropriations bill this afternoon. The bill would reduce FY12 funding from the FY 2011 enacted level by $308 million. While we have not yet seen bill language, we have learned that Perkins Act funding would be level funded. Given the fiscal climate on Capitol Hill, and the number of programs cut and eliminated in FY11, we are encouraged by the Senate’s plan to maintain Perkins funding. Some of the other highlights of the bill include:

•  The bill eliminates 15 programs totaling more than $260 million.
• $100 million is proposed for the Workforce Innovation Fund, a competitive grant program which supports innovative, systemic and evidence-based reforms and helps determine which strategies are cost-effective and have the greatest impact.
• Funding is flat for ESEA Title I programs.

The subcommittee voted 10 – 8 in favor of referring the bill to the full committee, and it is expected to be marked up tomorrow. The bill will not likely be considered on the Senate floor, but will be included as part of an omnibus bill later this fall.

Nancy Conneely, Public Policy Manager

Tags: appropriations, budget, Congress, federal grants, funding, NCLB/ESEA, Perkins

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 20th, 2011 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Legislation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.