The Senate Appropriations Labor, Health, Human Services, Education and Labor Subcommittee considered and passed their FY16 Labor-H bill today. While the Senate version has a higher discretionary amount than the House version, which will need to be worked out in conference.
Education Funding
The Committee bill provides funding to increase the maximum Pell Grant award from $5,775 in the 2015-16 school year to an estimated $5,915 for the 2016-17 school year. While the bill maintains $22.5 billion in discretionary spending for Pell Grants in fiscal year 2016, it would rescind $300 million in funds that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will be needed to support the program next year. The bill also cuts $29 million from Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants and $40 million from Federal Work Study. All three programs help low- and moderate-income college students and their families cover the many costs of higher education.
Similarly to the House version, the Senate includes several policy riders to address and curtail administrative actions taken by the Department of Education (ED). The bill includes a new provision prohibiting the ED from moving forward with several new regulations expanding the Federal government’s role in higher education, until Congress has an opportunity to weigh in through the authorization process, as appropriate. Specifically, the bill prohibits the Department from moving forward with regulations or policies to develop or implement a college ratings system, define gainful employment, establish requirements for the State authorization of higher education programs, define credit hour, and establish a new accountability framework for teacher preparation programs.
Health Funding
The bill funds the Department of Health and Human Services at $70.4 billion, a $646 million decrease from FY2015. Further, the bill eliminates Affordable Care Act (ACA) funding and includes several provisions prohibiting any funds from being transferred to specific ACA activities that were never intended to be supported with discretionary funds prevent the administration from diverting funds away from core CMS activities. In addition, several oversight provisions are included in the bill:
-
Risk Corridor – Bill language is included requiring the administration to operate the Risk Corridor program in a budget neutral manner by prohibiting any funds from the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill from being used as payments for the Risk Corridor program.
-
State-Based Exchanges – With the increasing number of State-Based Exchanges failing due to lack of revenue, the bill includes new language preventing the administration from using discretionary funds to pay for operational costs for these Exchanges.
-
Health Exchange Transparency – Bill language is included requiring the administration to publish ACA-related spending by category since the Act’s inception.
-
ACA Personnel – Bill language is included requiring the administration to publish information on the number of employees, contractors, and activities involved in implementing, administering, or enforcing provisions of the ACA.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) – $32 billion, an increase of $2 billion above FY2015. This is the largest increase the NIH has received since its doubling ended in 2013.
- $200 million for Precision Medicine;
- $350 million increase for the National Institute on Aging, the lead Institute researching Alzheimer’s disease;
- $135 million, an increase of $70 million, for the BRAIN Initiative to map the human brain;
- $461 million, an increase of $100 million, to Combat Antibiotic Resistance;
- $300 million, an increase of $26.7 million, for the Institutional Development Award;
- and increases to every Institute and Center to continue investments in innovative research that will advance fundamental knowledge and speed the development of new therapies, diagnostics, and preventive measures to improve the health of all Americans.
Other Provisions
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The bill fails to provide a requested increase of $40 million for fiscal year 2016 to support the costs associated with replacing CPB’s interconnections system. To cover these costs, the bill would allow CPB to make cuts to its support for local television and radio stations.
Social Security Administration (SSA). The bill cuts SSA by $185 million, or roughly two percent, affecting the 50 million Americans who currently receive retirement and survivor benefits from Social Security, as well as the millions more who become eligible this year. On an average work day in fiscal year 2016, SSA predicts it will process about 22,000 applications for retirement and survivor benefits, a 29 percent increase since fiscal year 2008. At this bill’s funding level, SSA would need to reduce staff, office hours, planned information technology investments and curtail planned improvements to customer service and program integrity. This reduction could result in a furlough of up to two weeks for SSA staff.
Federal Relations will continue to track the legislation and provide updates as text and report become available.