As Congress Begins Work on FY 2025 Appropriations, AERA Highlights Priorities for Funding for Education Research and Statistics
As Congress Begins Work on FY 2025 Appropriations, AERA Highlights Priorities for Funding for Education Research and Statistics
 
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April 2024

Following the release of President Biden’s FY 2025 budget request in March, Congress began working on appropriations in April. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) was selected to serve as the chair of the House Appropriations Committee on April 10, after the prior committee chair, Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), stepped down as chair in March. 

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) held a hearing with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on the Department of Education FY 2025 budget on April 10, with Cardona scheduled to appear in front of the Senate LHHS subcommittee on April 30. Hearings have not yet been scheduled on National Science Foundation (NSF) appropriations. 

With the ongoing work on FY 2025 appropriations bills, throughout March and April, AERA joined letters from several coalitions highlighting priorities to support education research, statistics, and evidence-based practices in education, and will be submitting testimony to congressional appropriations subcommittees in May. AERA develops its priorities for federal appropriations requests related to education research and statistics in partnership with scientific and education community coalitions. AERA supports the following FY 2025 recommendations: 
 

  • Census Project: $2 billion for the Census Bureau 

  • Coalition for National Science Funding: $11.9 billion for the National Science Foundation (House | Senate) 

  • Friends of IES: At least $900 million for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) 

  • Friends of Justice Research and Statistics: $135 million for the Research, Evaluation, and Statistics account within the Department of Justice budget, which includes at least $60 million for the National Institute of Justice and $75 million for the Bureau of Justice Statistics 

  • Friends of NICHD: $1.891 billion for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, proportional to Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research request for $51.3 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) 

  • Friends of NCHS: $220 million for the National Center for Health Statistics 

What’s Next 

In FY 2025, funding will be subject to budget caps established under the Fiscal Responsibility Act, making significant increases in the investment in education research and statistics difficult. AERA will continue to make the case for why investment in IES, NSF, and NIH is important, including through the submission of outside public witness testimony to the House and Senate LHHS and CJS subcommittees during May.