The U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Labor, Health & Human Services (HHS), and Education Subcommittee reported on a bill that would fund federal programs and activities in these departments and agencies for fiscal year 2008. The bill is scheduled to come before the entire House of Representatives sometime during the week of July 9th. Senate action on this federal spending bill is expected to begin soon.
The Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill proposed $61.7 billion in funding for federal education programs, which is a $4.2 billion or 7.4% increase over FY2007 and $5.4 billion (9.8%) increase above the President's FY2008 budget request. The largest increases went to the No Child Left Behind Act which received a proposed increase of $1.99 billion which is an 8.4% increase from FY2007 and 4% over the Bush 2008 budget request.
Funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part B State Grants was increased by $174,464,000 or 1.6% over 2007 funding. This new funding merely maintains the federal share of funding special education programs for 2008 at 17.2%, the same share as in 2007. ASHA had requested a $1.9 billion increase for FY2008 to raise the federal share to 20% of special education funding. It is unclear at this time as to why the appropriations committee provided such a small increase to this critical program. ASHA President Noma Anderson sent a letter [PDF] to House Appropriations Chairman, Representative Dave Obey, citing the Association's deep disappointment with the insufficient funding proposed for special education.
Reading First, President Bush's flagship reading initiative, received the largest cut of $618 million or -61.1% compared to FY2007 funding. This was in clear response to concerns over management of the program since the release of several negative reports of Reading First.
Finally, the Early Hearing Detection & Intervention (EHDI) program under the Maternal Child Health Bureau (MCHB) of the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) received a $1,196,000 increase in FY2008 funding over FY2007 funding bringing total spending on this vital early detection program to $11 million. ASHA led a broad effort of over 30 organizations [PDF] to request and secure an increase in funding for this program.
If you have any questions about federal funding or the programs mentioned above, please contact Neil Snyder, ASHA's Director of Federal Advocacy, via e-mail at nsnyder@asha.org or by phone at 800-498-2071, ext. 4257.
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