Federal FY19 Appropriations on the Move

On June 22, the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-H) moved its Fiscal Year 2019 bill through markup. Despite the FY19 increase of $18 billion for nondefense discretionary funds from the deal made earlier this year, the House FY19 Labor-H bill received no additional funds (the Labor-H bill contains about 32% of the nondefense discretionary funds found across all federal agencies).

Given this challenge, it was a pleasant surprise to see that the programs that AACTE advocates for receive level funding or a small increase:

  • Teacher Quality Partnership grants – level funded at $43.1 million
  • Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Title II-A State Grants – level funded at $2.1 billion
  • Special Education Personnel Preparation – increase of $5.3 million to $89.1 million
  • Institute of Education Sciences (IES) –  level funded at $613 million

On June 26, the Labor-H appropriations subcommittee on the U.S. Senate side marked up its FY19 bill. The Senate FY19 allocation was $2 billion over the FY18 level – a modest increase that is still not at the fair share of approximately 32% of the agreed upon increase to the nondefense discretionary cap.

We were pleased to see the Senate bill basically reflect the House bill:

  • Teacher Quality Partnership grants – level funded at $43.1m
  • ESSA Title II-A State Grants – level funded at $2.1 billion
  • Special Education Personnel Preparation – level funded at $83.7 million
  • IES – increase of $2 million for NAEP, totaling $615 million

Next Steps

The Senate is slated to move its Labor-H bill at the full committee level on June 28. The House full committee markup will take place in July. It remains unclear at this time if either the House or Senate will move the Labor-H bill to the floor for consideration, given that it is a highly contentious bill and this is an election year. To some degree a continuing resolution is expected in September, with a deadline in December or in early 2019.

To stay up on what’s unfolding for educator preparation in Washington, DC, plan to attend one of AACTE’s Federal Update webinars – July’s webinars will be the week of July 24. These free, members-only webinars include a presentation and time for questions, and recordings are posted on the AACTE Advocacy Center’s federal page in case you cannot make either of the schedule options.


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Deborah Koolbeck

Senior Director of Government Relations, AACTE