House Committee Approves Labor-HHS-Education Funding Bill

By Kaitlyn Brennan

This weekly Washington Update is intended to keep members informed on Capitol Hill activities impacting the educator preparation community. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.

While I typically break from Washington Update during Congressional recess, I am excited to share that last week, the House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year (FY) 2023 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill on a 32 to 24 vote.

The bill provides $242.1 billion, an increase of $28.5 billion or 13% above 2022 funding levels. While significant advocacy work to get this across the finish line remains- the Appropriations Committee’s approval marks a great step in securing historic increases for education funding at the federal level. Your voices are being heard!

House Appropriations Committee Approves FY2023 Labor-HHS-Education Funding Bill 

Last Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2023 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill on a 32 to 24 vote. The bill provides $242.1 billion, an increase of $28.5 billion or 13% above 2022 funding levels. In a statement, Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said:

Too many hardworking Americans are struggling. Pay has not kept up with inflation, people are living paycheck to paycheck, women have been pushed out of the workforce and have trouble accessing good childcare, and educational opportunity remains hard to reach for many… I am proud that this 2023 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education funding bill makes transformative investments that help working families with high costs of living, create American jobs, support workers, and strengthen our health care infrastructure. This bill touches people at every stage of their lives, and the massive funding increase will create a society that provides people with the help they so desperately need. With this funding, House Democrats are ensuring the American people — our workforce, public health infrastructure, and education system — are equipped with the resources needed to allow our communities to thrive.

Specifically, the bill provides $86.7 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Education- $11.3 billion (15%) above the net level provided for FY 2022. The bill provides funding for three new programs: Children and Youth in Foster Care, Integrated Student Supports, and Fostering Diverse Schools.

Only three education programs received funding cuts including: Charter Schools, Temporary Extended Public Student Loan Forgiveness, and Teacher and School Leader Incentive Grants. In regards to the Teacher and School Leader Incentive Grants, the bill more than offsets that cut by providing a $100 million increase for teacher training in Title II, calling out the need for a more diverse educator workforce (p 248 of the report), and provides a $5 million increase in the SEED program, and a $22 million increase for the Hawkins Centers of Excellence to help HBCUs, HSIs, TCUs, and other Minority Serving Institutions to improve teacher preparation programs.

IDEA received a 22.3% or $3.242B increase over the FY22 enacted level. Specifically, Grants to States would receive $16.259B – a $2.915B increase; Preschool Grants come in at $440M-a 7% increase, and Grants for Infants and Families would see $621M – a $125M or 25% increase.

As the nation faces a critical shortage of special educators and specialized instructional support personnel, the bill would provide a historic increase in IDEA-D-Personal Preparation funding. The program is currently funded at $95M, the FY23 Labor HHS-Education House bill would provide $250M for the program- or a 163% increase.

Key Programs Related to Educator Workforce

A summary of the bill can be found here. The text of the draft bill is here. The bill report, before the adoption of amendments in full Committee, is here. And finally, information on Community Project Funding (earmarks) in the bill can be found here.

The measure now heads to the full House for a vote- if you haven’t already, now is your opportunity to call your Member in the House and ask for their support of the FY 2023 Labor-HHS-Education bill that would bring us one step closer to securing historic increases for education funding.

Senate appropriators for their part have not yet publicly begun the process of rolling out their own appropriations bills.

Congress and Washington Update will be back next Friday.

Until then, see you on Twitter at @brennan_kait.

Tags: federal issues, funding

Kaitlyn Brennan