Draft Budget Appropriations for NEA, NEH, ED, IMLS, and CPB Released

This bulletin from GIA’s federal policy firm, Penn Hill Group (Washington, DC), provides the latest information on subcommittee budget recommendations for the federal departments and programs related to education and the arts.

Arts Agency Proposed Budget Appropriations

Last week, the House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies proposed funding both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities at $145 million each for fiscal year 2018, a $5 million decrease from FY 2017 funding level.

The Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies also released their FY 2018 bill draft. Overall, the level of spending the subcommittee is permitted is $5 billion less than the 2017 level. The subcommittee has proposed maintaining FY 2017 funding levels for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Corporation for National and Community Service.

On education, the subcommittee is reporting a $2.4 billion reduction in spending for the US Department of Education (ED) compared to FY 2017. For this bill, many programs have their individual funding allocations provided in the committee report (which has not been released yet), rather than the actual bill text. We don’t expect the see the committee report until the full committee markup. While we can’t identify every program’s funding level from the bill text, here are some of the highlights we can identify:

Department of Education

• Title I formula programs: level funded compared to FY 2017
• Title II, Part A of ESEA: No funding provided
• 21^st Century Community Learning Centers: reduction of approximately $190 million to $1 billion compared to FY 2017
• Student Support and Academic Achievement grants (Title IV, Part A of ESEA): $500 million, an increase of $100 million compared to FY 2017
• IDEA, Part B grants to states: $200 million increase over FY 2017
• Charter school funding: $28 million increase over FY 2017
• TRIO and GEARUP: increased by $60 and $10 million respectively over FY 2017
• IES funding (R, D and D, RELs and Statistics): level funded compared to FY 2017
• Pell Grant maximum: same level as provided for in FY 2017 bill ($5,920)
• Pell Grant surplus rescission: the bill rescinds $3.271 billion in unobligated Pell grant funding
• Education Innovation and Reseach (EIR): No funding provided
• ESEA State Assessment grants: level funded at $369.1 million compared to FY 2017
• CTE State grants: level funded compared to FY 2017

Department of Labor

The bill provides a total of $10.8 billion in discretionary appropriations for the Department of Labor (DOL) — $1.3 billion below the amount provided in FY 2017. For the Employment and Training Administration $8.5 billion is provided — a decrease of $1.5 billion below the FY 2017 level. This total includes $2.6 billion for job training grants, $84.5 million for YouthBuild. The bill eliminates funding for the Employment Service Grants ($671 million).

Department of Health and Human Services

• Preschool Development Grants: level funded at $250 million compared to FY 2017 and funded out of HHS (this program was successfully advocated by GIA in 2014)