On Feb. 9, House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and her counterpart, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., announced that Democrat and Republican leaders of the Appropriations Committees reached an agreement on a framework for FY 2022 spending “which will allow our subcommittees to get to work finalizing an omnibus.”
“With this agreement, we will be able to invest in our communities and provide increases for health care, education, our national security, and invest in the middle class, among other priorities,” Leahy said.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the framework will allow negotiators to set topline spending figures. Once those figures are set, the Appropriations subcommittees will work on their sections of the omnibus and establish funding levels for federal agencies, including the Education Department, as well as funding levels for specific programs like Title I, Part A, and the IDEA.
After the subcommittees complete their work, the omnibus package must be passed by both the House and Senate before advancing to President Biden’s desk for final signature into law. Legislators hope to finish this work by March 11 — the expiration date of a continuing resolution that is currently making its way through Congress. The House passed that CR, the Further Additional Extending Government Funding Act, H.R. 6617, on Feb. 8 by a bipartisan 272-162 vote. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Senate will pass that bill before the current CR expires Feb. 18.
Passage of the final FY 2022 spending bill will be welcome news to school administrators working on their budgets for SY 2022-23, as Education Department officials have said that preliminary allocations figures for ESEA programs, including Title I, Part A, will not be available until FY 2022 spending levels are finalized.
Charles Hendrix covers education funding and other Title I issues for LRP Publications.
