With their first spending bill for FY2020, the House Democrats clearly signaled that they have no interest in going along with many, if not most, of the proposed cuts from the Trump Administration, especially in the social welfare arena. The FY2020 Labor-HHS-Education bill is scheduled to be marked up by the subcommittee this afternoon.
The bill would fund the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at $41.1 billion, an increase of $2 billion above the final FY2019 level and $6.9 billion above the Administration’s request. It would also provide $2.4 billion for Alzheimer’s research and $3.2 billion for HIV/AIDS research. In addition, $411 million and $195 million, respectively, would be allocated for the BRAIN and Cancer Moonshot initiatives.
With respect to student financial aid and higher education programs, the maximum Pell Grant award would be increased to $6,345, $150 above the amount from FY2019 and the budget request. The SEOG program would be funded at $1 billion under the bill; the Administration has proposed to eliminate the program. The Federal Work Study program would see an increase of $304 million to $1.4 billion in the bill.
The committee press release about the bill is available here. We’ll provide further details as the process moves forward.