House Takes Another Step in FY2012 Education Appropriations

Last week we wrote that the fiscal year 2012 appropriations process is well underway—at least in the U.S. House of Representatives. Yesterday the House Appropriations Committee passed another key milestone in the fiscal year 2012 appropriations process that has important implications for federal education funding.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a fiscal year 2012 budget resolution in April that set a total limit on appropriations funding for the fiscal year 2012 spending bills, known as the 302(a) allocation. It sets a limit of $1.019 trillion, or about $31 billion less than fiscal year 2011. Yesterday the House Appropriations Committee announced how it plans to divvy up that funding limit among the 12 appropriations subcommittees, called the 302(b) suballocations.

The House allocated $139.2 billion to the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Subcommittee (Labor-HHS-Education), which has jurisdiction over nearly all programs in the Department of Education. For fiscal year 2011, the comparable figure is $157.4 billion. In other words, the House has signaled that later in the year, when it drafts its version of the fiscal year 2012 appropriations bill that funds education programs (as well as Labor, HHS, and related programs), total spending will be $18.2 billion lower than the current year. (The allocations are still preliminary and the Committee could vote to change them before an appropriations bill is finalized.)

It’s important to note that the House hasn’t specified any funding for specific education programs yet—only aggregate numbers for total appropriations funding and for the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill. However, the $18.2 billion reduction in total spending for that bill makes significant spending reductions for some education programs highly likely. But that information won’t be available until the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee makes a draft bill public in the coming weeks.

It’s also important to keep in mind that the Senate has taken no action so far in the fiscal year 2012 appropriations process. Any final spending bill that gets signed into law also has to clear the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats. And the president will weigh in as well.

The Senate is still weeks away from any formal debate or vote on a budget resolution, and probably months away from any meaningful action in the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee. The Senate isn’t likely to go along with the House Republican’s proposed spending limits for fiscal year 2012, at least not without a fight.

So for now, it looks like the House Appropriations Committee has staked out its side of the fiscal year 2012 appropriations negotiating table early. All eyes are on the Senate.