Legislative Updates – May 13, 2024

House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) said that he has given his subcommittee chairs a general idea of the allocation range they are set to receive, but needs to speak to Speaker Mike Johnson(R-LA) before setting subcomittee spending allocations. Cole said he hopes that subcommittee chairs in the House can receive their spending allocations by late next week.

The House will abide by the spending caps set in the debt limit agreement, allowing just a one percent increase for domestic programs and a one percent increase for defense. However, on the nondefense side, House Republicans are expected to prioritize Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security funding at the expense of other domestic programs. As “side” deals ultimately raised nondefense funding above its cap for FY 24, sticking to the FY 25 spending caps without a side deal would amount to a cut of tens of billions of dollars in nondefense spending.

Cole hopes to start marking up bills in subcommittees later this month or in early June, and hopes to have all twelve bills out of committee by the August recess. The Senate timeline is uncertain, but Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) intends to hold markups in committee.

On Tuesday, the House Education and the Workforce Committee held a hearing titled, “Examining the Education Department’s Policies, Priorities, and FY 2023 Financial Audit Failure”, in which Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona testified. Chair Virginia Foxx(R-NC) started the hearing by stating that Sec. Cardona had not lived up to his potential, and that if she were to grade him based on the state of K-12schools, postsecondary education, and as administrator, she would give him an “F” in all three categories.

The hearing was highly contentious, with discussion of the FAFSA rollout, student loan forgiveness, Title IX, transgender athletes, regulatory action, mental health, foreign influences on college campuses, unauthorized immigrants in the school system, and college campus protests. Both sides of the aisle expressed their disappointment in the FAFSA rollout and many shared how it impacted their constituents. There was praise for career and technical education programs (CTE), and Sec. Cardona emphasized the President’s support for doubling the Pell Grant. Our memo on the hearing is here. A hearing recap from Committee Republicans may be accessed here.

Yesterday, the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Labor-HHS-ED Subcommittee held its hearing on the President’s FY 25budget request for DOL, with testimony from Acting Secretary Julie Su. Su faced a barrage of questions and criticisms from Republicans. Chair Foxx took issue with DOL’s regulatory actions. Tensions ran high as Republicans raised issues ranging from the DOL’s handling of fraud in pandemic unemployment benefits to concerns about federal overreach and the confirmation status of Acting Sec. Su. Other topics discussed during the hearing included the state of the economy and jobs numbers, CTE, apprenticeship, independent contractor classification, the proposed fiduciary rule, labor unions, and considerations for teacher pay. Our memo on the hearing is here.

Speaker Johnson held two lengthy meetings with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) this week before she attempted to end his speakership. The motion to vacate was tabled in a 359-43-7 vote. 11 Republicans voted against Speaker Johnson, though several said their votes were procedural votes for further debate, and that they would have voted against the actual motion to vacate. 32 Democrats voted against tabling and seven voted present, but the majority of Democrats backed their leadership’s decision to back Johnson. It is unclear if Rep. Greene will again attempt to oust Speaker Johnson this Congress. Rep. Greene initially introduced the measure after the passage of the FY 24 spending packages.

Sen. Bernie Sanders(I-VT), 82, Chair of the Senate HELP Committee, announced this week that he will run for reelection this year to seek a fourth term.

The Department of Education’s (ED) Office for Civil Rights issued new guidance through a Dear Colleague Letter to every school district and college in the country, providing examples of Antisemitic discrimination, as well as other forms of hate, that could lead to investigations for violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A White House Fact Sheet may be accessed here. A press release from the Department of Education may be accessed here.

The Lumina Foundation and Gallup released their “The State of Higher Education 2024” report. The study, which measures the attitudes of individuals toward education beyond high school and the barriers they may face, includes responses from over 14,000 U.S. adults who do not have a college degree and fall into one of the following groups: currently enrolled students, stopped-out adults, and never-enrolled adults. The report may be accessed here.