ConnSENSE

CEC Policy: FY '04 Appropriations Update

The second session of the 108th Congress began on Tuesday, after a brief winter recess. If youíll recall, Congress still has not passed the Fiscal Year 2004 spending bill that includes funding for K-12 education, higher education, Head Start, child care and other human services programs.

On December 8, 2003, the House passed the Conference Report for the $278 billion omnibus federal spending bill (H.R. 2673, the "Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY 2004") that includes the District of Columbia and six other unfinished FY '04 spending bills - Commerce/Justice/State, VA/HUD, Agriculture, Labor/HHS/Education, Transportation/Treasury, and Foreign Operations. The appropriators offset additional funding in the bill by a $1.8 billion rescission from post-September 11, 2001 emergency supplementals and an across-the-board cut of 0.59% to all programs, save Defense and Military Construction funds.

CEC is opposed to any across-the-board cuts, which could result in cutting many vital education programs below current services levels.

The Senate was poised to consider the bill upon its return yesterday, but was not able to gather the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture on the Omnibus bill. The passage of the motion would have ended debate on the bill and any possibility of a filibuster, thus bringing the conference report to a final vote. The vote count on the motion to invoke cloture was 48-45 with Democratic Senators Murray (WA), Hollings (SC) and Miller (GA) voting yes and Republican Senators Ensign, (NV), Campbell (CO), Snowe (ME) and McCain (AZ) voting no. Independent, Jim Jeffords (VT) also voted no.

Reportedly, Senate Majority Leader Frist (R-TN) is expected to schedule another cloture vote this Thursday. Frist, apparently, has asserted that the only alternative to passing the Omnibus bill would be to introduce a year-long continuing resolution (CR), which could keep all federal programs, including education, funded at FY ë03 levels until the end of the fiscal year, which is September 30th, 2004.

It is expected that a cloture vote will pass before the current continuing resolution (CR) expires on January 31st, and that the Senate will approve the conference report on the FY ë04 Omnibus, since the bill contains many funding increases for member projects. Democrats object to several policy provisions in the bill. Funding levels for education are not expected to change.