Washington Watch - Complex funding issues take center stage in Congress
With decisions made about how funds appropriated in the April budget deal will be doled out for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, the U.S. Congress continues work on budget proposals for fiscal year 2012. In late May, the U.S. Senate rejected the U.S. House of Representatives’ budget proposal for fiscal year 2012, and debate continues on raising the debt ceiling.
Education reform remains a priority of the Obama administration and Congress, and additional legislative policies of interest to Texas educators, including the Government Pension Offset, have also come into focus at the federal level.
Much work remains for Congress this summer.
2011 funding
On April 14, 2011, Congress passed H.R. 1473 providing appropriations for the remainder of fiscal year 2011. The bill makes nearly $40 billion in spending reductions in both mandatory and discretionary spending and is the last of eight continuing resolutions for fiscal year 2011.
The U.S. Department of Education posted updated budget tables in May, showing final program funding levels for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year. Although the USDE faced one of the toughest budget environments in recent history, the budget includes a $5.5 billion increase in funding for Pell Grants. The funds also include $698.6 million for the Race to the Top program, $29.9 million for the Promise Neighborhood Grant program, and $149.7 million for Investing in Innovation (i3) (Note: These numbers reflect the 0.2 percent across-the-board cut that reduces critical funding to our nation’s classrooms, educators and students).Finally, the budget maintains funding levels for key formula programs including $14.46 million for Title I (Part A grants to school districts) and $11.48 billion for IDEA (Part B grants to states).
The measure also freed-up $830 million in federal funds for Texas education that previously had been withheld because of an amendment to the Education Jobs Fund Bill (H.R. 1586). The amendment authored by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) stipulated that Texas maintain state support for elementary and secondary education at a level equal to or greater than the percentage provided in the 2010 budget. The money was received in late April, and will soon flow to the school teachers and schoolchildren of Texas.
2012 budget
In February, the president released his $3.72 trillion budget proposal for 2012, including $77.4 billion for the USDE, but it is highly unlikely that Obama’s budget will get through Congress.
On April 5, 2011, Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, and his Republican colleagues introduced their fiscal year 2012 budget resolution, The Path to Prosperity: Restoring America’s Promise. The measure cuts $6.2 trillion in government spending over the next decade compared to the president’s budget proposal, reduces deficits by $4.4 trillion compared to the president’s budget proposal, eliminates many duplicative programs, maintains current tax rates, and aims to foster private-sector job creation.
On April 15, 2011, the measure (H. Con. Res. 34) passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 235-193, but like the president’s budget, is highly unlikely to see final passage in the Senate without major revisions.
Working off of the House-passed budget, leaders in the House of Representatives have set spending limits requiring the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee to cut more than $18 billion from 2011 levels, which is $41.6 billion less than the president proposed in February. This allocation will force lawmakers to choose among many vital labor, health and education programs.
On May 25, the U.S. Senate rejected the House budget proposal by a vote of 57-40. All Senate Democrats and five Senate Republicans voted down the measure.
ESEA/K-12 legislative activity
Discussions continue in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on the rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, has said that he hopes to introduce a bipartisan rewrite soon. Though potential bill language has been in negotiations since the start of the year, no date has been set for a markup.
Even though the Senate has yet to introduce a comprehensive overhaul bill, a number of bipartisan education bills dealing with key topics within ESEA have been introduced in the Senate to jump-start the rewrite and potentially serve as the building blocks of a broader piece of legislation.
One measure was introduced by Sen. Kay Hagan (D-North Carolina), to codify the administration’s four school turnaround models, which include closing schools and replacing staff. Another is a literacy bill introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington), aimed at helping states and districts bolster reading and writing instruction for students from birth through 12th grade.
Another measure, introduced by Senators Michael F. Bennet (D-Colorado), Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland), is the Growing Excellent Achievement Training Academies (GREAT) Teachers and Principals Act which would create new and more effective avenues for preparing teachers and principals for the classroom. With selection based on rigorous admission requirements, the academies would emphasize clinical instruction and tie graduation to improved student academic achievement. In return for accountability, the academies would be free from burdensome regulations unrelated to student achievement. Programs failing to produce great teachers and principals would not be reauthorized.
Finally, the Senate HELP Committee is scheduled to mark up its Workforce Investment Act reauthorization bill language in July, though no bill has been introduced.
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce is following a different course. The chairman of the committee, Rep. John Kline (R-Minnesota), has said he would prefer to move small, targeted bills that address issues within current law, rather than work on a single overhaul bill.
On May 13, 2011, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-California) introduced the first of these bills, H.R. 1891, the Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act, aimed at weeding out what he believes are inefficient and unnecessary K-12 education programs. The legislation would eliminate 43 programs, including Grants to Reduce Alcohol Abuse, Elementary and Secondary School Counseling, Teaching American History, Excellence in Economic Education and Reading is Fundamental. The Committee on Education and the Workforce marked up the bill in late May, and favorably reported the measure to the full House for consideration.
The committee is also likely to introduce a flexibility bill to provide schools with flexibility in funding. The chairman has indicated that he would like to mark up the flexibility bill before August recess.
The committee recently marked up H.R. 2218, the Empowering Parents Through Charter Schools Act. Introduced by Chairman Hunter, the bill was approved on a bipartisan vote of 34-5 in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
While Chairman Kline has stated that he would like all ESEA bills considered in the House to be passed by the end of the year, the administration says it will consider issuing waivers of ESEA requirements if Congress does not, in fact, make progress on reauthorization. Chairmans Kline and Hunter sent a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan strongly questioning his authority to issue NCLB waivers in exchange for implementation of new policy reforms, and have asked for his response by July 1.
Pensions
On April 1, 2011, Rep. Howard McKeon (R-California) introduced H.R. 1332, the Social Security Fairness Act. This bill would repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). The bill has 77 cosponsors and has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. No companion bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate so far.
The GPO reduces a Social Security spousal benefit if the individual receives a government pension based on work not covered by Social Security. The WEP reduces the Social Security benefit of a worker who has pensions from both Social Security and non-Social Security employment.
No timeline for consideration of this measure has been set; however, because this change would affect TCTA members, TCTA encourages members to continue making their thoughts on this proposal known to their representatives in Congress.
This article was prepared by Van Scoyoc Associates, TCTA’s lobby team in Washington, D.C., with extensive experience with education-related committees at the Capitol and in executive branch agencies.
