June 2014

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-H) held a markup on proposed appropriations for FY 2015 on June 10. Early indications suggest that appropriations could be stalled. Nonetheless, AERA and other Friends of IES signed on to a letter to the chairs and ranking members of the full Senate Appropriations Committee and the Labor-H Subcommittee to request adequate funding levels in FY 2015.

The subcommittee proposal would increase funding for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) by only $2.1 million compared to FY 2014 levels. This amount falls short of appropriations for the agency in FY 2012 and is $58.2 million below President Obama’s budget request for FY 2015. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) would receive a boost of $3 million, while research, development, and dissemination (RD&D) would be increased by $5 million. Details on the allocations of funding within IES, as well as comparisons to previous fiscal years and President Obama’s funding request, are noted below.

Institute of Education Sciences
Appropriations History and FY 2015 Proposals ($ millions)

	2012 (actual)	2013 (actual)	2014 (actual)	2015 (budget request)	2015 Senate Labor-H
IES Total	593.6	562.6	576.9	637.2	579.0
Research, Development, and Dissemination (RD&D)	189.8	179.9	179.9	190.3	184.9
Statistics (NCES)	108.7	103.1	103.1	122.7	106.1
Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs)	57.4	54.4	54.4	54.4	55.4
Assessment (NAEP and NAGB)	138.3	131.1	140.2	132.3	132.3
Research in Special Education	49.9	47.3	54.0	54.0	54.0
Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS)	38.1	36.1	34.5	70.0	34.5
Special Education Studies and Evaluations	11.4	10.8	10.8	13.4	11.8

The House Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, has not yet announced when it will begin consideration on a House Labor-H bill.