Senate Approps approves FY'12 Labor-H bill.

UPDATED 9/23/2011: The Senate appropriations committee has released the legislative text and committee report for the FY 2012 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill approved by the committee on Wednesday.

September 22, 2011 

Yesterday, the Senate appropriations committee approved its Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS). The measure includes approximately $300 million in spending cuts compared to FY 2011 enacted levels—consistent with discretionary spending caps included in last month’s Budget Control Act (BCA)—but largely maintains current funding levels for key workforce and education programs.

Full text of the bill was not available at the time of this writing; according to committee staff, the Senate bill:

• Level funds state formula grants under Title I of the Workforce Investment Act. The bill would extend language included in the final FY 2011 continuing resolution (CR) that reduces the allowable state set-aside under these grants from fifteen percent to five percent, and maintains language from previous appropriations bills allowing local workforce boards to contract with institutions of higher education and other eligible training providers to facilitate training of multiple participants.
• Provides $100 million for the Workforce Innovation Fund, which provides grants to support innovative workforce development strategies on the state and local level. The WIF was originally created under the final FY 2011 CR, and received $125 million in funding last year.
• Reduces funding for training programs targeting ex-offenders, from $85.6 million to $75.4 million.

Other DOL training programs are kept at FY 2011 levels.

The bill includes funding to keep the maximum Pell Grant award at the current level of $5,550 per year. Because of increased demands on the program—the number of students receiving Pell Grants rose from about 6.2 million in FY 2008 to an estimated 9.4 million in the 2012-2013 academic year—the program was projected to face a $11.3 billion shortfall in FY 2012, but Congress provided $10 billion in mandatory funding under the BCA, and the Senate Labor-HHS bill would fix the remaining gap by eliminating certain interest subsidies on student loans. 

Other key workforce programs under the Department of Education are also maintained at current year levels, including state grants for career and technical education under the Perkins Act, and adult education state grants under Title II of WIA.

Next steps in the appropriations cycle are unclear. With FY 2012 set to start on October 1, the House attempted to move a stopgap CR yesterday that would have kept the federal government running at slightly reduced funding levels through November 18th; however, this bill failed after nearly 50 Republicans voted against it, seeking steeper spending cuts in line with the budget resolution passed by the House earlier this year. It is expected that Congress will pass the CR by this weekend, averting a government shutdown and giving appropriators another seven weeks to negotiate final programmatic spending levels for FY 2012, most likely as part of an omnibus package.

National Skills Coalition urges Congress to ensure that final FY 2012 appropriations include adequate investments in job training and education programs to that U.S. workers and businesses can acquire the skills necessary to compete in today’s economy. We will continue to monitor developments relating to federal workforce funding, and provide updates as new information becomes available.