FY2020 afterschool appropriations update: Spending deal reached

Last week the White House, Senate leadership, and House leadership announced that they had come to an agreement to increase spending caps for FY2020 and FY2021. The deal, which passed the House last Thursday and is expected to pass the Senate and be signed into law by the president this week, would replace the mandatory sequester cut in current law. The spending deal paves the way for the Senate to join the House in passing their FY2020 appropriations bills with the new fiscal year scheduled to begin October 1, 2019.

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 raises the caps on defense and non-defense discretionary (NDD) funding for the next two upcoming fiscal years and suspends the debt ceiling until July 31, 2021. House and Senate leadership on both sides of the aisle support the deal, and the White House has also signaled its support for the deal.

With the big picture spending deal in place, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) is expected to give the subcommittees their 302(b) allocations (the amount of money they have for their bills) by the end of this week or early the following week. The tentative dates for consideration of the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education spending bill by the Senate appropriations subcommittee and full committee are September 10 and September 12.

It is important to note that the budget deal includes less money for non-defense discretionary spending than the House assumed as it developed and passed its appropriations bills earlier this year. That means that the Senate’s bills, including its Labor, Health and Human Services and Education spending plan, will be less generous than those approved by the House. While the House bill included a $100 million increase for 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) funding for local afterschool and summer learning programs, we will likely not know the Senate proposed allocation for Community Learning Centers until September.

With the Senate scheduled to be on recess much of August, friends of afterschool can reach out to their senators to share how federal Community Learning Centers funding impacts local families and communities. Additionally, afterschool programs should consider inviting their elected officials for a site visit while their policymakers are in town this August or during the 20th Lights On Afterschool (October 24, 2019).