—A Budget, Appropriations, and Advocacy Update
By Jackie Taylor and Ellen Fern
FY2011 Appropriations
Congressional leaders agreed late Friday to a compromise that will keep the federal government funded for the remainder of the fiscal year—averting a government shutdown less than an hour before it was set to start. They also passed a short-term resolution that would fund the federal government through Friday, April 15.
By passing a new, one-week extension, both chambers were given the time to work out the legislative language for a final agreement to cut an additional $38.5 billion for the remainder of the FY 2011 year. Late last night/early Tuesday morning, the text of the final FY2011 budget was released, and it will be voted on by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
The cuts add up to the largest budget reduction for federal agencies in U.S. history. Most of the $38.5 billion would reduce spending for specific programs, while 0.2% would come from an across-the-board cut spread evenly across all discretionary programs.
Adult Education and Family Literacy is funded by the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. A press release from the Senate Appropriations Committee indicates that the overall Labor-HHS program level is $165.6 billion, which includes funding for the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Education and Related Agencies. It contains $68.5 billion specifically for the Department of Education. Adjusting for the costs required to maintain the maximum Pell Grant award at $5,550, the final amount for these agencies is $5.7 billion less than the FY2010 level. Maintaining a maximum Pell Grant award is a high priority for the President to help meet his goal of the U.S. once again becoming the nation with the highest number of college graduates by 2020.
In this final long-term CR, funding for Even Start is eliminated. Adult Education State Grants were also reduced by $31 million from FY 2010 funding levels. This amount equals the “one-time” fix that was included in last year’s budget to correct for a funding miscalculation error that occurred between fiscal years 2003-2008. Appropriators do not view this as a “cut”. This does not include the 0.2% across the board cut, the impact of which will be known once the Department of Education releases the information.
The bill provides a total of $2.8 billion ($182 million below the FY 2010 level) for job training state grants for Adults, Youth and Dislocated Workers. The bill also provides $125 million for a new Workforce Innovation Fund to encourage states and regional partnerships to engage in system reform to improve program outcomes. Last, the bill allocates $1.08 billion for the Corporation for National and Community Service, a cut of $72 million from FY 2010. This includes funding for AmeriCorps.
House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) revealed last week his plan for FY 2012. It is a proposal he modestly calls “The Path to Prosperity: Restoring America’s Promise,” and, if enacted, it would mean a radical shrinking of the federal government. For the function 500 programs alone-that would be education, training, employment and social services-the cut proposed by Ryan is $67 billion. Democrats on the Budget Committee were unanimous in their criticism of Ryan’s plan, and even many long serving Republicans on the Committee fell short of endorsement-instead praising Ryan’s “courage” in producing the document.
This week Congress also begins to work on the FY 2012 budget and raising the debt ceiling by the middle of May.
Advocacy Priorities:
Thank you to all who took action last Friday on an alert to protect adult education funding in FY2011! Your actions were very important in sending a message to Congress that no reduction in adult education is acceptable. We will keep you posted on the need for further action.
As we know, advocacy is not just about calling your Member of Congress during critical times of need. We must maintain and sustain our efforts. Therefore, we should continue to focus on inviting federal legislators and district aides to visit our programs.
The following alerts are live and need action:
-This alert is particularly important. If you cannot get your legislator to visit your program, call the District office and ask for a District Representative to visit the program. We must get our legislators or their aides into our programs to meet our staff and students.
-Adult education students and graduates can participate in a paperless letter campaign, sharing their education goals, successes, and challenges with their legislators.
