Remember the two-year spending agreement that was reached earlier this summer that increased the budget caps for both FY2020 and FY2021? Well, that seems like a distant memory at this point. When the agreement was reached, there were hopes that the FY2020 appropriations process would turn into a relatively smooth one. Fast forward to today and we are now 11 days away from the start of FY2020 and none of the 12 spending bills have been signed into law.
To try to prevent another shutdown like the one that marked the beginning of FY2019, the House took up and passed yesterday a continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the government funded through November 21. The Senate is expected to take it up next week. There was even uncertainty about the fate of the CR, with the biggest holdup being House Democratic appropriations leadership’s misgivings about adding funds for subsidies to farmers impacted by the tariff fight with China. Ultimately, enough of the concerns were addressed for floor action and passage.
In the Senate, with the hopes of a quick appropriations process dashed, appropriators are making progress where they can. The full Appropriations Committee cleared three bills yesterday in a bipartisan manner: Agriculture, Transportation-Housing, and Financial Services- General Government. However, significant hurdles remain. There still are differences between the two sides about the Administration’s attempts to move funds from other bills to build a wall on the Southern border. Related to the wall push is the Democrats’ unhappiness about the “302(b)” allocations to the subcommittees, especially to the Labor-HHS subcommittee for its bill. While the Labor-HHS-Education bill and the accompanying report have finally been released, the legislation has not yet moved due to Democratic objections on funding and Republican protests related to abortion policy.
The current version of the Senate Labor-HHS-Education bill would increase funding for NIH by $3 billion. In addition, while the legislation would increase the Pell Grant maximum to $6,330, it would level fund the majority of the other student financial aid and higher education programs of most interest, including:
- SEOG: $840 million
- Federal Work Study: $1.1 billion
- TRIO: $1.06 billion
- GEAR-UP: $360 million
- GAANN: $23 million
- Institute for Education Sciences (IES): $615 million
- Title VI International Education programs: $72 million
The bill would also provide $100 million to federal student loan borrowers who would otherwise be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program except for the fact that they unknowingly made payments to ineligible repayment plans. This amount would be combined with unobligated balances for similar efforts from prior years.
Stay tuned for further updates.