Congressional Stimulus Bills Include Major Education Funding Proposals

On January 28, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R.1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2008. The legislation contains a wide variety of spending and policy initiatives intended to stimulate the economy over the next two years. The vote in the House fell along party lines with nearly all Democrats voting in favor and all 177 House Republicans voting against the package.

The bill contains approximately $140 billion in spending and tax provisions targeted at education for states and local governments. Major funding proposals include:

• IDEA Part B, State Grants – $13 billion for formula grants to increase the federal share of special education costs and prevent these mandatory costs from forcing states to cut other areas of education.
• IDEA Part C, Grants for Infants and Families – $600 million for formula grants to help states serve children with disabilities age 2 and younger.
• ESEA/NCLB, Title I Help for Disadvantaged Kids – $13 billion for grants to help disadvantaged kids in nearly every school district.
• School construction – $20 billion, including $14 billion for K-12 and $6 billion for higher education, for renovation and modernization, including technology upgrades and energy efficiency improvements.

The Senate is expected to consider their version of the bill next week which contains funding for IDEA, NCLB, and school construction. In addition, it includes $600 million to address health professions workforce shortages, including scholarships and loan repayment programs. These funds reportedly can be used for grants to universities and colleges that train health professionals, and to purchase equipment to expand training capacity.

The stimulus packages address some health care issues, including the expansion of health information technology. Congress has indicated that health care issues will be debated in great detail later this year in both a Medicare package and health care reform initiatives.

Congressional leaders hope to resolve the differences in their stimulus bills by the following week with the goal of sending a final bill to President Obama before the President's Day holiday.

For additional information, please contact Neil Snyder, ASHA's Director of Federal Advocacy, at nsnyder@asha.org or 800-498-2071, ext. 5614. To read more about the contents of these bills, please visit the U.S. House Web site and Senate Appropriation Committee Web site.