FY2013 Appropriations Process Moves Forward

By Erik Peterson

With the start of the 2013 fiscal year just three months away, Congress has started to step up the appropriations process. On June 14 the Senate Committee on Appropriations approved the fiscal year 2013 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) bill by a vote of 16-14. The House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Subcommittee was considering marking up their spending bill as early as Wednesday, June 20, however that mark-up has been postponed. While the Committee work on FY2013 spending bills is encouraging, many in Washington still expect final action on FY2013 spending bills to be delayed until after the fall elections. That being said, now is a good time to take stock of the funding levels included in the Senate LHHS spending bill, and an equally good time to contact representatives in support of afterschool program funding.

The Senate LHHS bill (S. 3295) funds a number of federal programs that support afterschool and summer learning programs, including the 21^st Century Community Learning Centers (21^st CCLC) initiative. In addition to funding levels, the bill includes language that alters the 21^st CCLC initiative and details of these changes as well as action steps to address the changes are available here. The bill did include increases for several funding streams that fund afterschool and summer learning, and level funded others, including 21^st CCLC:

21^st CCLC: level funded at $1.15 billion, however bill language could divert funding away from afterschool and summer learning programs. More to follow on this.
Child Care and Development Block Grant: $2.438 billion, a $160 million increase to go toward both quality improvement and improved access. Typically a third of CCDBG (also known as CCDF) supports afterschool care for children ages 6 to 12.
Promise Neighborhoods: $80 million, a $20 million increase over the Fiscal Year 2012 level. Programs currently funded through Promise Neighborhoods have included comprehensive afterschool programming.
Title I: $14.616 billion, an increase of $100 million, for Title I grants to local education agencies for improving education for low-income students. Afterschool and summer learning programs are eligible uses for Title I funds.
TRIO and GEAR UP: level funded at $840 million for TRIO and $302 million for GEAR UP.
Community Services Block Grant (CSBG): level funded at $677 million. The Administration had proposed a cut of $327 million.
Community Development Block Grants (CDBG): $3.1 billion, an increase of $152 million from FY2012.
Corporation for National and Community Service: $1.06 billion. This is the same level recommended by the president in his FY2013 budget request and represents a 1% increase over last year’s levels.
AmeriCorps State and National: $346.4 million (will support 74,000 AmeriCorps members and includes funding to increase the number of national service participants with disabilities)
VISTA: $95.3 million (will support 7,400 AmeriCorps*VISTA members)

It is not clear when, or even if, this legislation will be considered by the full Senate. As stated above, the House Labor-HHS-ED Subcommittee may mark up its FY2013 bill in the coming weeks. That subcommittee’s allocation is more than $7 billion below the Senate’s, and will likely include spending cuts for many programs. Unless current law changes, the sequestration process will go into effect in January, resulting in about an 8 percent cut to discretionary programs like 21st CCLC - which would be applied to the final FY2013 funding level. Take action now by contacting your members of Congress about the need to support (and not divert or cut) funding for afterschool and summer learning programs.

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learn more about: 21st CCLC Advocacy Budget Congress Department of Education Education Reform ESEA Extended Day Federal Funding Federal Policy Funding Opportunity Legislation Summer Learning
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