The Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations subcommittee yesterday approved
a $162 billion funding bill for FY 2017 that restores year-round Pell
Grants and increases the maximum grant award from $5,815 to $5,935.
The bipartisan measure, the result of negotiations between
subcommittee chair Roy Blunt (R-MO) and ranking member Patty Murray
(D-WA), is the first passed by the subcommittee since 2009.
Under the bill, total funding for the Department of Education is
$67.8 billion, $220 million less than FY 2016. While almost all other
student aid and institutional support programs, including Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, TRIO, GEAR UP and Federal Work-Study,
are funded at FY 2016 levels, scientific research would receive a
significant increase. The National Institutes of Health would receive $2
billion in additional funding, which would bring the agency’s total
budget to about $34 billion. Combined with other increases in medical
research in the bill, the increase represents a significant investment
in this area.
But perhaps the most significant higher education component of the
bill is the reinstatement of year-round Pell Grant funding. The Senate
bill would restore the provision and provide additional Pell Grant
funding for approximately one million students, at an annual estimated
cost of $1.5 billion.
The agreement also calls for moving $1.2 billion out of the Pell
Grant Program to fund other programs across the bill. After a number of
years of budget shortfalls during the Great Recession—which spurred the
elimination of the year-round grants—the program currently has a
projected $7.8 billion surplus in FY 2017, though that would decrease by
roughly $2.7 billion as a result of the spending measures proposed.
ACE and 18 other higher education groups sent a letter
(202 KB PDF) to House and Senate appropriations leaders in April, expressing strong
opposition to any effort to use funding taken from the Pell Grant
program for any other purpose.
“Regardless of the merits of other critical programs funded in the
LHHS-ED appropriations bill, any use of Pell funds outside of the Pell
program itself would be extremely shortsighted,” the groups wrote.
“Students cannot afford to continue subsidizing other areas of the
budget.”
As Inside Higher Ed
reports, subcommittee member Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), while
praising the move on Pell Grants, said that “cuts and sacrifices” were
made to reach the compromise.
The bill will now head to the full Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday.