March madness = Budget & appropriations process kickoff!

This year, early March means the release of the president’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year and the beginning of the FY 2024 appropriations process in Congress. Here's what we know so far about how this year’s process may roll out in the coming year. 

On or about March 9, the Biden administration is expected to release a budget request detailing the President’s policy priorities and aspirational funding levels for all government departments and programs. After it is released, the Afterschool Alliance will post a blog summarizing the president’s FY 2024 budget proposal and its potential impact on afterschool and summer learning programs.

On Capitol Hill, the 118th session of Congress has gotten off to a slow—and arguably chaotic—start, with Appropriations subcommittee leadership not finalized in the Senate until mid- February. The Senate Appropriations Committee announced deadlines for spending requests next, both for programmatic and Congressionally Directed Spending (formerly called earmark) requests. The deadline for funding requests for the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies is April 13, 2023. The Senate has not announced any other proceedings yet, but will likely host agency heads to defend the president’s budget later this spring before debating any spending plans.

In the House of Representatives, House Republican leadership has made it clear that they are looking to keep FY 2024 spending to FY 2022 levels, which could result in cuts to any programs that received increases in the FY 2023 omnibus spending bill that passed last December – including the 21^st Century Community Learning Center initiative, which supports local afterschool and summer learning program. That means that President Joe Biden’s budget request is likely to be all but ignored by House leadership. The House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Appropriations Subcommittee has scheduled its public witness hearing for Thursday, March 23. In addition to hearing oral testimony from selected witnesses, the Subcommittee will accept written testimony through March 23. Instructions for submissions can be found here. As is the case in the Senate, cabinet secretaries will be invited to testify in support of the President’s budget proposal, including Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. Appropriations subcommittees and the full committee are expected to mark up spending bills by the summer months, and House leaders want to pass spending bills before the current federal fiscal year ends on September 30, 2023. In recent years, Congress has been unable to reach that goal and has had to pass continuing resolutions in September to keep the government funded and open. In a year when House and Senate leadership have very different ideas about federal spending, this goal seems even more difficult.

A further complication is the lack of agreement on raising the debt ceiling. The debt limit caps the total amount of allowable outstanding U.S. federal debt. The current limit of $31.4 trillion was reached on January 19, 2023, but the US Department of the Treasury has been undertaking “extraordinary measures” to ensure federal debt payments are covered. While conversations between the White House and House Republicans on raising the debt ceiling began earlier this year, there has not been any recent public progress. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has made it clear he is leaving any negotiations to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). He feels that a would-be deal struck by the Speaker and the White House would be a starting point for the Senate, which will not be able to pass the kind of spending cuts House Republicans are asking for in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. In late February, the Congressional Budget Office announced that the measures taken by Treasury could adequately service the country’s debt until sometime between July and September if Congress does not raise the ceiling on borrowing. That could further prolong negotiations on the issue.

Friends of afterschool, advocates, program staff, parents, mayors, law enforcement officers, community members, and school board members can let their members of Congress know how important local afterschool and summer learning programs — as well as the federal funding supports for them—are to their students, families and communities.

Keeping afterschool top of mind for your legislators and helping them understand the impact of this federal support in your community helps ensure continued funding. Elected officials need to be able to envision your student, program, and story and the impact this funding has on their constituents. Reach out to your members of Congress to share the impact of out of school time programs. Invite them to visit an afterschool program. Then ask your friends and partners to do the same.