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Category: Budget

House Passes Jobs Bill with Higher Ed. Provisions

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Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a jobs package (H.R. 2847 -Jobs for Mainstreet Act of 2010) that provides $75 billion of unspent funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) for assistance to states and local governments in avoiding government layoffs and supporting infrastructure repair and modernization. 

Of note to the higher education community in the bill is an additional $300 million for the College Work-Study program, as well as the following aid for public colleges and universities:

“Education Jobs Fund: $23 billion for an Education Jobs Fund to help States support an estimated 250,000 education jobs over the next two years.  95% of the funds will be allocated by States to school districts and public institutions of higher education to retain or create jobs to provide educational services and to modernize, renovate, and repair public education facilities. The remaining 5% of funds is reserved for State education-related jobs and administration of the Education Jobs Fund.”

The Senate will not act on a companion bill until January at the earliest.

Appropriations Committee Summary of H.R. 2847

Future of Tax Extenders Legislation Remains Unclear

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Despite House passage of the Tax Extenders Act of 2009 (H.R. 4213), it appears possible that tax provisions important to the higher education community may expire at the end of the month. The provisions include the education tuition deduction, the IRA charitable rollover, and the research and development tax credit. Disagreements in the Senate over offsets for the tax provisions, as well as the laser focus on health care reform, make passage of the legislation by the end of the month unlikely. However, it remains possible that the a bill will be passed in early 2010 that would be retroactive to the beginning of the year.

FY10 Appropriations Moving to Conclusion

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Yesterday, details on a House-Senate omnibus FY10 appropriations package (H.R. 3288) emerged. The omnibus package will contain 6 of the 7 appropriations bills that have yet to be signed into law -with only the Defense Appropriations bill remaining. The Defense bill is being utilized as a final vehicle to advance measures that the leadership in Congress wants approved before the end of the year. The current plan would have all 7 remaining appropriations bills signed into law by the end of the month. Of note specifically for the University of Washington in the omnibus is $200,000 for a UW Bothell Nursing Faculty Consortium Training program. Additionally, significant funding is expected in the Defense bill for the UW Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies. More broadly, items of note in the omnibus FY10 appropriations package for the higher education community include:

Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations

Education-

  • Pell Grant maximum award is funded at $5,550. This total includes $4,860 ($17.495 billion of discretionary funding) with plus $690 from the CCRAA ($631 million in mandatory funding)
  • Javits is level funded at $9.6 million
  • GAAN is level funded at $31 million
  • SEOG is level funded at $757 million
  • Federal Work Study is level funded at $980 million
  • LEAP is level funded at $63.8 million
  • TRIO is increased by $5 million to $853 million
  • GEAR UP is increased $10 million to $323 million

National Institutes of Health (NIH)-

  • NIH is funded at $31.0 billion, $250 million above the request and $692 million above non-ARRA FY 2009 enacted level. Similar to past years, $300 million will be transferred to the Global HIV/AIDS Fund.

Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations

National Science Foundation (NSF)-

  • NSF is funded at $6.93 billion, $436 million above the regular FY 2009 enacted level, but below the Administration’s request of $7 billion. Within NSF, the Research and Related Activities account would receive $5.617 billion, the Education and Human Resources account would receive $872.7 million, and Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) account would receive $117.29 million.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-

  • NASA is funded at overall at $18.72 billion, an increase of $941 million over FY 2009 enacted. Within NASA budget, the Science Mission Directorate funded at $4.469 billion, a decrease of $34 million, and the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate nearly level funded at $501 million.

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-

  • NOAA is funded overall at $4.737 billion, with the National Sea Grant Program funded at $63.0 million, an $8 million increase over FY 2009, and the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research account is increased to $438.8 million.

National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST)-

  • Within NIST, the Manufacturing Extension Partnerships (MEP) program is funded at $124 million, an increase of $14.7 million over FY 2009, and the Technology Innovation Program (TIP) is funded at $69.9 million, an increase of $4.9 million over FY 2009.

Military Construction – Veterans Affairs Appropriations
           
Veterans Affairs (VA)- 

  • Within the VA, the Medical and Prosthetics Research Program is funded at $581 million, an increase of $71 million over FY 2009.

State-Foreign Operations Approprations

Agency for International Development (USAID)-

  • The Higher Education in Africa Program is funded at no less than $25 million with the report language stating that higher education partnerships between American and African institutions of higher education should be expanded and $15 million “shall be awarded in an open and competitive process…”  The Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSPs) is funded at $31.5 million.

The Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation is not funded.

Timeline Slipping for Major Legislation

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Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) announced this week that a climate bill will not likely emerge before the spring of 2010. The announcement confirms that at least 1 of 3 (and likely all 3) of President Obama’s top legislative initiatives for 2009 will slip into 2010 -the other two being health care and student aid reform. Some proponents of the three pieces of legislation hoped to move to completion this year, as to avoid political considerations made by the 2010 mid-term election season. The cap-and-trade climate legislation, introduced by Senator Kerry and Senator Boxer (D-CA), initially drew support from accross the aisle; as Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) came out in support of the effort. However, since then, the bill has garnered little bipartisan support; passing the Senate Energy and Public Works Committee without Rebuplican support on the panel and after a boycott of the mark-up. At present, it appears that Senator Kerry is trying to put together a compromise that will garner the 60 votes necessary to break a filibuster; much the same tactic that is being employed by Majority Leader Reid in advancing a health-care overhaul.

Given that the Senate companion bill to the House Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) has been linked to the passage of health care reform, student aid reform remains on hold. Leaders on the Hill have indicated that both chambers will likely be in session until the third full week of December.

Second Continuing Resolution on the Horizon

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Today, the leadership in Congress announced that a second continuing resolution (CR) lasting until December 18th will be attached to the Interior-Environment Appropriations bill conference report -as appeared likely earlier this week. It is expected that the measure will pass by the end of the week. Since the end of the fiscal year was September 30th and all appropriations bills were not passed on-time, Congress passed a CR to keep the government operating. A CR is a stopgap measure that funds the government at the previous year’s appropriations level. The CR will give Congress more time to complete the remaining 7 appropriations bills. With the passage of the joint Interior/Environment-CR measure later this week, Federal Relations expects support for the Puget Sound Ecosystem Research Initiative.

Agency Items of Note from the Interior-Environment Conference Report:

  • $167.5 million for the NEH and the same for NEA; an increase of 8% over FY09
  • $846 million for EPA S&T; an increase of 7% over FY09
  • $1.112 billion for USGS; an increase of 6.5% over FY09