The full House Committee on Appropriations voted 31-19 July 14 to
approve the FY 2017 spending bill for Labor, Health and Human Services,
and Education.
The bill is a mixed bag for higher education. The good news is with
respect to research: funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
is increased to $33.3 billion, an increase of $1.25 billion above the
current fiscal year. By contrast, the Senate bill, which was passed by the Appropriations Committee June 9, funds NIH at $34 billion, a $2 billion increase.
The not-so-good news is on student aid. The House committee bill does
not restore year-round Pell Grants, in contrast to the Senate version
of this legislation. Restoration of year-round Pell has long been sought
by many in the higher education community—including ACE (202 KB PDF)—since
it was cut in 2011. Moreover, in a move that is similar to the Senate’s
approach, the House bill takes funding from the current Pell surplus to
pay for other priorities, reducing the current $7.8 billion surplus by
$1.3 billion.
On the positive side, the House bill would raise the maximum Pell
award to $5,935, which is the same as the Obama administration's request
and the Senate bill.
Among other financial aid provisions, the bill would level-fund
Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants, Federal Work-Study, and Title
VI/Fulbright-Hays grants at their FY 2016 levels of $733 million,
$989.7 million, and $72.2 million, respectively. The bill would increase
funding for TRIO to $960 million, an increase of $60 million above the
FY 2016 level, and increase funding for GEAR UP to $344 million, an
increase of $22 million above the FY 2016 level.
The panel rejected a Democratic effort to cut provisions in the bill
that would block a range of Obama administration regulatory actions,
including the Department of Education’s rules on gainful employment,
teacher preparation, state authorization, the federal definition of a
credit hour and the recent guidance on transgender students, as well as
the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule.
Because time is nearly up for final passage of the 12 appropriations
bills needed to fund the federal government for the next fiscal year,
the House bill is unlikely to go any further. The most likely scenario
at this point is that lawmakers will be forced to pass a continuing
resolution to keep the government funded past Sept. 30—and then a
long-term omnibus after the election.