Omnibus Appropriations Legislation

President Signs Omnibus Appropriations Legislation

President Signs Omnibus Appropriations Legislation

On December 8, President Bush signed into law the fiscal year 2005 omnibus appropriations bill that includes funding for the Department of Education. Congress had initially passed the spending bill in late November, but Congress was forced to revisit the measure after disclosure of a controversial provision in the bill would have allowed Appropriations Committee members and their staffs access to individual income tax returns. During this week’s lame duck session, the House followed earlier Senate action and approved a clean version of the bill.

The omnibus bill, which includes funding for several federal agencies, provides $56.58 billion for the Department of Education. The spending total is $920 million over last year’s spending for education programs, but it’s still $760 million less than the amount requested by President Bush earlier this year. The $920 million figure represents just a 1.6 percent increase in education spending over last year, which makes it the smallest increase in almost a decade.

As we reported to you earlier, IDEA Part B Grants to states is funded at $10.6 billion for fiscal year 2005, Part 619 Preschool Grants received $384.6 million, and Part C Early Intervention received $440.8 million. Also of interest to CEC members, the Javits program for gifted and talented students received $11 million for fiscal year 2005. To view complete fiscal year 2004 funding totals for all IDEA and Javits programs and how they compare to the President’s request and previous years’ levels, see CEC’s updated budget chart at:
http://www.cec.sped.org/pp/appropchart.pdf

For other major education programs, the omnibus appropriations bill includes $12.7 billion for Title I, an increase of $400 million over last year, but still $7.8 billion less than the amount authorized in the No Child Left Behind Act and $600 million less than the President requested. The maximum Pell Grant was frozen at $4,050 for the third year in a row. If you would like to see all the fiscal year 2005 appropriations levels for every education program, you go to the chart on the Department of Education’s Web site here:
http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget05/05action.pdf