• Avoiding an October 1st Surprise in Congress

    By Manish Naik

    Director of Legislative Services

     

    After historic events this summer drew the nation and electorate’s attention to the presidential campaign, Congress has returned from its August recess for a brief September session before it soon adjourns until after the November elections. The biggest agenda item in September will be passing a short-term extension of federal funding to keep the government open when the new federal fiscal year begins on October 1st. Neither party wants to be seen as shutting down the government just a few weeks before Election Day.

    Although both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees approved education funding proposals in July as part of their respective FY 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education bills, neither chamber has considered their legislation on the floor. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its FY 2025 bill with bipartisan support, increasing overall discretionary funding for the U.S. Department of Education with slight increases for Title I and IDEA Part B and level-funding for the majority of remaining programs. The Senate committee bill also provides more than $2 billion in increases for early childhood programs in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, increasing Child Care and Development Block Grants by $1.6 billion and Head Start by $700 million. By comparison, the FY 2025 bill approved on a party line vote by the House Appropriations Committee included severe reductions for education, including a $4.7 billion cut to Title I and the outright elimination of Title II funds for Educator Effectiveness and Title III for English Learners.

    It is unlikely that either education funding proposal will receive a standalone vote in the House or Senate before the November elections, if at all. In the short September session, Congress will focus on passing a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep federal agencies running after October 1st and avoid a government shutdown. A CR will eventually be negotiated and approved, but House Speaker Mike Johnson’s initial proposal for a six-month funding extension coupled with voting eligibility legislation encountered immediate resistance from Democrats, the White House, and some of his fellow Republicans. That proposal was defeated on the House floor. Whatever CR is eventually passed will likely provide a two month extension into December, at which point lawmakers will likely consolidate all of the outstanding funding bills into one or two omnibus packages, making it easier to pass the remaining legislation before adjourning the 118th Congress for good and starting the process all over again with a new Congress and new White House in the new year.