Legislators in Congress have agreed on a compromise spending bill for the 2010 fiscal year that would increase appropriations for Pell Grants, minority-serving institutions, and programs for disadvantaged and first-generation college students.
The omnibus bill (HR 3288), includes a total budget of $163.6-billion for education, health, and labor programs in the fiscal year that started in October, including a $200 increase in the maximum Pell Grant for low-income students, raising the maximum award to $5,550. The bill, hammered out by a conference committee, still needs the approval of both the House of Representatives and the Senate before President Obama can sign it into law.
Most of the spending in the bill was unsurprising, closely following Mr. Obama’s spending priorities, said Cynthia A. Littlefield, director of federal relations at the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. It did not, for instance, provide increased support for Federal Work-Study programs and supplementary grants. “I think most of this is predictable,” Ms. Littlefield said. “We knew that Pell [Grants] would be at $5,550, and we assumed we would have level funding on most of these programs.”
The National Institutes of Health would get $31-billion under the bill, $250-million more than President Obama’s request and $692-million more than last year’s budget, according to a news release from the Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill also includes $6.9-billion for the National Science Foundation, a $436-million increase over its 2009 budget and slightly less than the $7.04-billion Mr. Obama had requested. The bill also continues the prohibition of using federal funds for research that creates or destroys human embryos.
In their budget for science programs, appropriators also allocated $1.2-billion for science education from elementary school through graduate education, money that is intended to encourage students to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. That is $113-million more than in 2009.
On other fronts, the bill exceeds Mr. Obama’s request for funds to support historically black colleges and other minority-serving institutions, budgeting $603-million for those colleges, $60-million more than the president sought and $96-million more than what was appropriated last year.
Congress’s compromise plan also would provide more money than the president requested for TRIO and Gear Up programs, which are intended to help first-generation college students, low-income students, and students with disabilities. Congress proposes $853-million for TRIO programs, a $5-million increase over last year, and $323-million for Gear Up, a $10-million increase over 2009. Mr. Obama had not requested an increase for either program.
But the bill provides no money for the Perkins Loan-forgiveness program, which would be eliminated under the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (HR 3221), separate legislation pending in Congress that would overhaul the federal student-loan programs and direct savings from those changes to student aid and other programs.
The appropriations bill also would not provide any increases in capital for Perkins Loans.
It is the first time in at least a decade that the loan-forgiveness program has not been financed, Ms. Littlefield said, but because many institutions do not receive much money from the program, the effect on campuses should be “small to moderate.”