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Senate Appropriations Committee Provides Only $100 Million in Additional IDEA Funding for FY ‘06; Funding Restored For Javits Grants for Gifted and Talented Students

Senate Appropriations Committee Provides Only $100 Million in Additional IDEA Funding for FY ‘06; Funding Restored For Javits Grants for Gifted and Talented Students
Troy Justesen Officially Named Deputy Assistant Secretary for OSEP

Senate Appropriations Committee Provides Only $100 Million in Additional IDEA Funding for FY ‘06; Funding Restored For Javits Grants for Gifted and Talented Students

On July 14, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill that only provides an additional $100 million for IDEA for fiscal year 2006. By comparison, the President’s FY 2006 budget request was for an additional $506 million above the FY 2005 amount of $10.59 billion for Part B. Last month, the House-passed Labor-HHS appropriations bill provided an additional $150 million over last year’s funding level.

CEC is outraged that the Senate has gone backward in its funding for IDEA. The President’s request of $508 million for FY 2006 would have kept IDEA funding at the present 18.6 percent full-funding level. But the Senate’s figure of just $100 million in additional funding for IDEA moves the full-funding level back to 18 percent! IDEA 2004, overwhelmingly passed by Congress last November and signed into law last December, authorizes Congress to reach full funding of IDEA by 2011, yet the House and Senate funding levels for FY 2006 actually move away from, not closer to, IDEA full funding.

The good news for CEC members is that the Senate Appropriations Committee restored funding for Javits Grants for Gifted and Talented students in its FY 2006 Labor-HHS-Education bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee funded the program at the FY 2005 level of $11.0 million. As you may know, the President did not request any funding for Javits in his FY 2006 budget request, and the House followed suit last month by zeroing out the program in its FY 2006 Labor-HHS-Education bill.

You can tell the Senate that you, too, are outraged by the lack of funding for IDEA in the Senate FY 2006 Labor-HHS-Education bill, and that you do not support the bill, by going to CEC’s Legislative Action Center and personalizing a letter we have there for you to send. Please personalize the letter before you send it to reflect the impact that the lack of IDEA funding will have on you. To send a letter to your Senators calling on them to increase IDEA funding, go to http://capwiz.com/cek/home/ . Tell your friends and colleagues to send letters, too!

Overall, the Senate bill provides just a 2-percent increase for education programs over the FY 2005 level. For further information on the Senate appropriations bill, go to http://appropriations.senate.gov/hearmarkups/07-14-05PRLaborHFull.htm . The full Senate will probably vote on the bill sometime in September. The bill will then go to a House-Senate conference committee where the differences between the House and Senate measures will be worked out.

Troy Justesen Officially Named Deputy Assistant Secretary for OSEP

Earlier this week, at a meeting of the CEC Division of Council of Administrators of Special Education in Washington, Troy Justesen announced that he is now the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the Department of Education. Mr. Justesen had been the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for OSEP. Congratulations, Troy!