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Category: Higher Education

Two Biggest Spending Bills Likely to See Senate Movement

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After the Senate returns from its abbreviated August recess this Wednesday, it is expected to start debate on the two biggest spending bills, the Defense and Labor-HHS Appropriations Bills. The Senate will most likely combine the two measures into a single package, which, if passed, would include a total of approximately $857 billion in total spending for defense, health, education, and labor programs.

The House, which remains in recess through Labor Day, has made no announcements regarding its plans for the two bills.

 

House Democrats Unveil HEA Legislation

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To counter the House Republican proposal to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA), the House Democrats today will introduce their own version of a reauthorization bill.  The Democrats’ package, the Aim Higher Act, will serve as their messaging document moving forward.  It is not expected to move through the legislative process.

A number of documents related to the legislation are available:

  • a detailed summary of the bill produced by the Democrats on the Education and the Workforce Committee is available here;
  • the committee Democrats have also produced a “fact sheet”; and
  • a press release about the measure is available here.

The House Republicans’ bill, the PROSPER Act, was passed by the Education and the Workforce Committee late last year but has not yet come to the floor for a vote as the committee chairwoman has not been able to generate enough support for its passage.

Labor-HHS Spending Bill Clears House Committee

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After an all-day markup, the FY2019 House Labor-HHS-Education bill was cleared by the Appropriations Committee last night. The committee’s adoption of the bill means that 11 of the 12 spending bills have cleared the House Appropriations Committee; the Senate committee has cleared all of its bills.

The 13-hour markup was contentious at times, with heated debates on a number of issues, including child separation.  Of the roughly 50 amendments offered and debated during the session, a significant number of them focused on child separation practices at the border.

Although the bill has now cleared the committee process, it is unclear at this point whether it will see floor action in the near future.

A copy of the bill is available here and the accompanying report is available here.

 

 

Appropriations Process Continues to Move Forward

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The FY2019 appropriations process continued to move forward today.

The House agreed to its version of the Defense spending bill by a vote of 359 to 49.  The detailed report for the bill is available here.

In the Senate, the full Appropriations Committee adopted its version of the Labor-HHS-Education and Defense spending bills.  While most of the details from the two bills are not yet available, the bills’ highlights have been posted by committee here and here.

 

 

Senate Bill Calls for Bigger NIH Increase

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The Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee reported out this morning its FY2019 bill. While most of the legislation’s details are not yet available, Chairman Roy Blunt (R-MO) highlighted during his remarks the $2-billion increase in the bill slated for NIH.  He also called out the proposed Pell Grant maximum of $6,195 and the continuation of the year-round Pell.  A press release about the highlights of the bill is available here.

The bill is slated to be taken up by the full Appropriations Committee on Thursday, when the panel will also consider the Defense bill.

More details will be posted as they become available.