Straight A’s Articles on the Fiscal Year 2009 Federal Education Budget
October 6, 2008
In the final days before the start of the new fiscal year, Congress enacted a massive stopgap spending bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 that postpones most spending decisions until next year. The bill, which freezes nearly all domestic spending at 2008 levels, but provides spending increases for the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, military construction, and veterans' affairs, will keep the government running until March 6, 2009. June 30, 2008
In mid-June, Congress began an appropriations process that will likely last into early next year because of differences between President Bush and Democrats in Congress over how much to spend. In crafting their plans, Democrats in the House and Senate rejected numerous funding cuts in the Bush budget while also increasing spending for certain domestic priorities. As a result, the difference between the president's budget and the plan adopted in the House of Representatives is about $21.1 billion. The Senate's plan comes in slightly lower at $20.6 billion. June 2, 2008
On May 20, House and Senate leaders announced a compromise on the Fiscal Year 2009 Congressional budget resolution, but a final vote on the measure was delayed because of a procedural problem. Congress is now expected to vote on the budget resolution when it returns from the Memorial Day recess in early June. The Congressional budget resolution, a nonbinding spending blueprint that does not require presidential approval, sets monetary limits for the spending and tax legislation that Congress will consider for the rest of the year.
March 24, 2008
Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed similar versions of a budget resolution that would significantly increase spending over the amount proposed in the president's budget. The House version would set an overall discretionary spending limit of $1.014 trillion, $25.4 billion more than the president's $987.6 billion, while the Senate would increase spending by $21.8 billion. These overall discretionary spending totals are the crucial part of the budget resolution, as they are the only numbers that are binding on the appropriations committees.
March 10, 2008
Last week, the House and Senate Budget Committees passed two separate versions of a fiscal year (FY) 2009 Congressional budget resolution. The two resolutions differed slightly in the total amounts of discretionary funding that they would permit in FY 2009 and in the amounts that they would provide for the U.S. Department of Education, although both plans would reject President Bush's proposed cuts for education programs.
February 11, 2008
On February 4, President Bush unveiled a Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 budget that proposes an overall freeze on funding for the U.S. Department of Education. It would eliminate funding for forty-seven education programs and spend $300 million for a "Pell Grants for Kids" program that has been characterized by some on Capitol Hill as a voucher program that would take money away from already-hurting public schools.
February 4, 2008
President Bush said his budget for Fiscal Year 2009 "understands that our top priority is to defend our country, so we fund our military, as well as fund the homeland security." He added that his budget would also keep the economy growing and keep spending under control by holding discretionary spending to less than 1 percent.
In her statement on the budget for the U.S. Department of Education, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said that the budget, "provides the necessary resources for critical programs that equip American students with the skills they need to compete and succeed in the knowledge-based economy."Other reactions to President Bush's Fiscal Year 2009 budget proposal:
- Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee: "We've seen this script before. The President proposes more of the same failed fiscal policies he has embraced throughout his time in office - more deficit-financed war spending, more deficit-financed tax cuts tilted to benefit the wealthiest, and more borrowing from foreign nations like China and Japan. The result can only be the same - a further explosion of debt and the undermining of our nation's economic security. ... This budget will be quickly forgotten. But, unfortunately, the President's legacy of debt will stay with us, as it is passed on to future generations. His stewardship of our budget has been an utter disaster. We need a dramatic change in our fiscal course, and it can't happen soon enough."
- Representative John Spratt (D-SC), Chairman of the House Budget Committee: "As the Bush Administration begins its last lap, one looks for a mea culpa for its dismal fiscal record, and looks for a budget that acknowledges its mistakes that have left us a mountain of debt. But today's budget bears all the hallmarks of the Bush legacy - it leads to more deficits, more debt, more tax cuts, more cutbacks in critical services. Far from proposing a plan to fix the budget, this Administration proposes policies that worsen it, and with little compunction, leaves the consequences for the next administration and future generations to correct."
- Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee: "Today more than ever, a quality education is the gateway to achieving the American dream. Education is about opportunity, but it's also about our nation's economic prosperity and our national security. Unfortunately, once again, President Bush has failed to put his money where his mouth is with respect to public education. His rhetoric is to leave no child behind but his budget leaves 3 million children behind - and cuts critical education programs from early education through adulthood. On top of funding cuts, he proposes misguided, anti-student policies in the loan programs that take away new benefits for student borrowers enacted last year. His proposals would cut critical assistance for borrowers in low paying jobs struggling to repay their loans and dramatically cut the number of individuals eligible for public service loan forgiveness."
- Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee: "Just like every person and family must set a budget to keep spending in check, so must the federal government. Although the final checks are written and approved by Congress, the President makes his priorities known through his budget request. Every year I encourage people not to overreact in response to the President's budget because it is only a suggestion and Congress ultimately controls the purse strings. ... I applaud the President's efforts to balance the budget and think the Senate can go even farther to straighten out the financial matters of this country."
- Senator Robert C. Bryd (D-WV), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee: "What we are seeing today is more of the same from this Administration - deficits, deception and demagoguery. You would think that after almost eight years in office, this White House would understand how important it is to invest in the priorities of the American people. Instead the Bush budget mortgages our children's and grandchildren's future through massive budget deficits, the short-changing of critical domestic priorities. The Bush budget for America is worse than a freeze - it is an Arctic freeze - slashing programs which benefit the education, health and safety of American citizens by $2 billion, while increasing defense spending by over 5%."
January 28, 2008
In his State of the Union address, President Bush said that his budget would "terminate or substantially reduce 151 wasteful or bloated programs, totaling more than $18 billion."
(A more complete wrap up of the president's State of the Union address, including information on education priorities, is available at http://www.all4ed.org/2008_SOTU_WrapUp).