From my ACTE email
February 28, 2011
On February 19, the House passed its FY 2011 appropriations bill, H.R. 1, by a vote of 235-189. The bill cuts the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act by $102.9 million by completely eliminating the Tech Prep program, and makes deep cuts to other education and workforce development programs as well. However, there is still hope for stopping these cuts!
The Senate is expected to begin working on the bill this week, and Senate leaders are in the process of developing their own funding proposal for the rest of the fiscal year. While the Senate proposal will contain spending cuts, the cuts will likely not be as deep as those proposed by the House in H.R. 1. Negotiations will then be required to work out differences between the House and Senate FY 2011 funding bills. Continued advocacy is needed to ensure the Senate bill does not include a cut to Perkins.
Both chambers are working against the clock as the current funding bill expires on March 4. To buy more time for negotiations on the year-long bill, House Republicans have introduced a two-week funding extension that would keep the government operating until March 18. While this bill does include $4 billion in cuts, it does not cut Perkins funding! This is good news and is a sign that advocacy efforts are paying off. The short-term continuing resolution (CR) represents only a fraction of the cuts included in the House-passed H.R. 1, but may serve as an important piece of future negotiations, so it was important that Perkins cuts not be included.
The House is expected to consider the short-term CR early in the week, and while Senate leaders initially expressed opposition to the approach, reports now indicate that the bill could be passed in the Senate before the end of the week. At some point before March 4, the two chambers and the president will have to agree on this bill or an alternate funding extension, or the government will shut down.
The debate around the short-term extension has the potential to cloud work on a year-long bill, but we must remain vigilant on the broader legislation. It is crucial that you continue to fight for a restoration of funds to Perkins! Although the process has moved to the Senate, the House will still be involved because both chambers have to agree on the final bill. Visit www.acteonline.org/saveCTEfunding.aspx for more information about what you can do and encourage others to join your advocacy efforts!
