Education Appropriations Advance in U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate Committees
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations completed its work on the Labor, Health & Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill June 24. In the full committee markup, Representative David Price (D-NC) offered an amendment to restore funding for the Teacher Quality Partnerships and other programs supporting teachers and administrators, but the amendment was defeated on a party-line vote. The bill does retain the policy rider prohibiting the promulgation or enforcement of the proposed teacher preparation program regulations.
It was a busy week in the U.S. Senate, where the Labor, Health & Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill moved through both the subcommittee and full committee. This bill would fund the Teacher Quality Partnership Program at $36 million, which is $4 million below FY 2015. The Senate bill also contains a policy rider on the teacher preparation program regulations, although the language is different from the House bill. The Senate’s version is not yet available to allow for a comparison between the two bills.
Neither the House nor the Senate has scheduled floor time for consideration of the bills. Conversations are moving toward working out a deal similar to the Murray-Ryan deal of 2013, where relief was established around the budgetary caps established in the Budget Control Act of 2011. These caps continue to lower the amount of funds that the appropriations committees can distribute for nondefense discretionary accounts, which include funds for education programs.
Your continued communication with your senators and representatives on the proposed teacher preparation regulations is vital in ensuring that the related policy riders are part of the negotiations.
For more information on what you can do to stay engaged as these bills move through Congress, please contact me at dkoolbeck@aacte.org.
Tags: federal issues, funding, teacher quality
