The new budget bill, which moved through both houses of Congress quickly and was easily passed by both houses, represents a 2.6 percent increase over the post-sequester budget for FY 2013. The fiscal relief is not evenly spread, with some programs receiving significant increases and others continuing at lower levels.
CLASP has deep expertise in helping state and local advocates, policymakers, and administrators use federal investments effectively for low-income people. As a first step toward helping explain the impact of this new budget, CLASP has developed the following resource:
A Look at the New Federal Spending Bill: How Does It Affect Key Programs for Low-Income Children, Youth, Families, and Individuals?, which offers a general overview of how the budget impacts a broad array of programs that support low-income people.
For a more focused look at education, CLASP has also prepared an overview of how the budget affects education in the United States, particularly post-secondary education.
Here are some highlights from the overview:
- “Under the terms of the agreement, funding for many programs administered by the Department of Education (ED), including K-12 programs, is restored to pre-sequester levels, but many higher education programs are funded at levels slightly lower than that.”
- Pell Grant Awards went up with inflation
- Federal Work-Study (FWS) and Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants (SEOG) went up almost $90 million from last year
In short, it seems that the difficulty with the government shut down last year has led Congress to be a bit more compliant in their budget negotiations, which is certainly good news for funding for education, but the sequester still keeps programs lower than many, especially those on the left side of the aisle, would like.
For more information, please vist: http://www.clasp.org/issues/postsecondary/in-focus/how-does-postsecondary-education-fare-in-the-new-federal-budget
