Senate Passes Stimulus Package — IDEA Funding Prevails Among Education Provisions

By a vote of 61–37, the Senate passed its version of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Senate negotiators backed-off a push to cut IDEA funding in that chamber's version of the stimulus package. The proposed funding levels in both the House and Senate versions of ARRA now provide $13.5 billion, over two years, for IDEA Parts B and C. Thank you to all ASHA members who took action and contacted your Senators on this issue.

Senators did agree to trim funding for local education agencies' NCLB/ESEA programs, eliminate the school renovation and modernization programs for K-12 and higher education, and made large cuts to the proposed State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. Senators cut out over $60 billion from their bill in U.S. Department of Education funding alone.

The House and Senate will now meet in a conference to resolve the differences in their bills before sending a final bill to President Obama for his signature. For further information or questions about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, please contact Neil Snyder, ASHA's Director of Federal Advocacy, at nsnyder@asha.org or 800-498-2071, ext. 5614.