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House Passes Spending Bill to Fund Education, Training and Work Support Programs
On Thursday, July 19th, the House of Representatives passed its FY2008 spending bill to set annual funding levels for education, labor, health and other social services programs. The Labor-HHS-Education bill, approved by a 276-140 vote, would provide $151.7 billion in annually appropriated funding. This is about a 4.7 percent increase in funding from FY2007.

The bill includes modest funding boosts to several programs that help unemployed and underemployed women advance into higher-paying work:

• a $25 million increase for Perkins career and technical education grants to States
• an $834,000 increase to the Department of Labor Women's Bureau—the only federal agency devoted to the concerns of women in the workforce
• a $75 million increase in child care assistance for low-income parents
• $30 million in additional funds for the Community Services Block Grant which supports poverty reduction programs in local communities
• $390 increase to maximum Pell Grant that an individual can receive each year.

WIA Rescission
Unfortunately, it also includes a $335 million “rescission”—or order to take back –of over $335 million in previous years' Workforce Investment Act funds from States. The Bush Administration requested this move, asserting that States are sitting on millions of dollars of unspent job training funds.

The $335 million would be shifted to education programs for students with disabilities.

Click here to see how the proposed WIA rescissions would affect your State.

Veto Threat from President
The Senate still needs to pass its FY2008 Labor-HHS-Education bill which will likely not happen until after Congress returns from August recess in the fall. After Senate passage, a joint House-Senate conference committee will meet to negotiate differences between the two bills. (For example, the Senate bill does not include the WIA rescission, nor does it include an increase in funding for career and technical education or child care.)

However, working out differences between House and Senate versions of the spending bill will not be the only challenge. On Tuesday, July 17th (2 days before the bill's passage in the House) the President released a statement promising to veto to the House bill, saying that it is $11 billion more than the Administration believes should be spent on education and social services programs.

Stay tuned for updates as the FY2008 Labor-HHS-Education funding bill moves through the Senate.

Senate Passes Its Financial Aid Bill
In the wee hours of Friday morning last week, the United States Senate passed the Higher Education Access Act of 2007, 78 to 18. The bill would provide more than $17 billion to help students and families pay for postsecondary education. Click here to see how your Senator voted.

Next, a joint House-Senate conference committee will need to meet to work out differences between the Senate bill and the House version passed last week. However, the House and Senate versions of the bills have a number of major differences that may prove challenging for negotiators. Perhaps most significantly, the House bill cuts the interest rates on subsidized student loans in half—a change not contained in the Senate bill.

The chart below outlines key differences between the bills:

Source: United States Student Association, 2007.