The House Appropriations Committee posted the committee report to their FY16 Labor, HHS, and Education (Labor-H) appropriations bill today giving additional insight to the legislation passed earlier last week.
The bill provides a new maximum Pell award of $5,915 but discretionary funding is down $370 million. They take this money from the current surplus. The committee report states (page 133):
The Committee recommendation uses this surplus along with the funds appropriated in this bill to maintain the maximum Pell Grant award in the 2016–17 academic year. However, the Committee notes with concern that the Pell Grant program will again face a significant fiscal shortfall in future years without further reforms to make the program more efficient and targeted to the students and families that are most in need.
Additionally,
- Federal Supplementary Education Opportunity Grant (SEOG) is level funded at $733 million
- Federal Work Study is level funded at $989 million
- Federal Student Loans (Title VI programs) are level funded ($65 million for the domestic program and $7million for the overseas programs)
- Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) program is funded at $25 million (a cut of $4.2 million)
- Institute for Education Studies (IES) is funded at $409 million (a cut of $163 million)