Skip to content

House Appropriations Releases Draft Labor-HHS-Ed Spending Bill

The House Appropriations Committee released their draft Labor-HHS-Education spending bill today in which they executed several spending cuts and revoked all additional funding for “Obamacare”. Some highlights:

Health & Human Services

  • The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is funded at $6.7 billion, a $1.5 billion increase over FY11 levels
  • The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funded at $31.76 billion, which is $1.4 billion above FY11 and designed to support at least 9,150 new and competing research projects
  • Head Start would receive $8.09 billion, approximately $500 million above FY11
  • The Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services takes a cut of $290 million from FY11 with an FY12 funding level of $3.2 billion

Education

  • Investing in Innovation (i3) funding is eliminated by the House in their FY12 bill
  • International Education & Foreign Language (Title VI) is cut by approximately $10 million to $66.7 million from already reduced FY11 levels
  • Federal Work Study is level funded at $978.5 million
  • TRIO is level funded at $826.5 million
  • GEAR UP is level funded at $302.8 million
  • the Fund for the Improvement of Post-secondary Education (FIPSE) is eliminated by the House for FY12
  • The Pell Grant Program is maintained at a maximum award amount of $5,550 but in order to fill the shortfall in the program, the Committee suggests limiting lifetime eligibility to 6yrs (from 9yrs), rolling back recent changes to the qualification formula, and eliminating eligibility for students who attend school less than half time or students who do not have a diploma/GED