APLU-CGA Update

Last night, House and Senate appropriations leaders announced the release of the $1.012 trillion FY2014 consolidated appropriations (omnibus) bill (H.R. 3547) that will fund the government through the end of the fiscal year. Since the current funding measure expires on Thursday, the House this afternoon approved a short-term continuing resolution that will fund the government through Saturday, January 18 to allow time for debate and then votes. Both the House and Senate are expected to approve the measure.

The updated FY2014 APLU Appropriations Priorities Chart prepared by our Congressional and Governmental Affairs team details the funding levels for federal agencies of importance to public universities. A few highlights include: NIH received $29.9 billion, which is $1 billion more than last year, but still below pre-sequestration levels; NSF received $7.2 billion, which is $288 million more than last year, but less than before sequestration; USDA’s AFRI received $316.4 million, which is more than $39 million above last year; the maximum Pell grant award will increase by an estimated $85 to $5,730; the Federal Work Study program will increase by $49 million and the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant will rise by $37 million, though both are less than pre-sequester levels.

Public universities are clearly better off because the lower figures from the sequester were adjusted upward. I confidently report that your hard work with your lawmakers had a real impact. Nevertheless, we still have work to do to both fight for reasonable numbers for the FY2015 federal budget and then to prevent the sequester from coming back in full for FY2016 and years thereafter. We need to advocate for higher underlying funding levels that will get us back on track and go a long way toward closing the innovation deficit.

The White House released a Statement of Administrative Policy supporting passage of the omnibus, stating the bill “unwinds some of the damaging cuts caused by sequestration, ensures the continuation of critical services that the American people depend on, and invests in essential areas such as education, infrastructure, manufacturing, and scientific research, which contribute to growing the economy, creating jobs, and strengthening the middle class.”  

The omnibus bill text and joint explanatory statement are available on the House Rules Committee website here. Also available are the House Appropriations Committee Majority summaries by bill, the House Appropriations Democratic summary of the omnibus, the Senate Majority Omnibus Summary, and the Senate list of subcommittee 302(b)s allocations.  

Thank you again for all of your hard work on federal budget issues over the past year.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or APLU’s Vice President for Congressional and Governmental Affairs (jpoulakidas@aplu.org) with any questions. 

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