Congressional Action on FY 2019 Appropriations Continues


June 2018

The House and Senate appropriations committees are moving forward on FY 2019 funding, holding markup hearings on budgets for federal agencies that support education research.

The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced the Senate Labor, Health, and Human Services, and Related Agencies (LHHS) legislation on June 28 on a 30-1 vote. The bill would increase funding for the Institute of Education Sciences by $2 million to $615.5 million. The funds would be used for administering the long-term trend NAEP assessment. The Department of Education overall would receive $71.4 billion, a $541 million increase over FY 2018. The bill would provide the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) $1.51 billion, an increase of 46.6 million, and $39.1 billion for NIH overall, an increase of $2 billion.

In early June, the Senate Appropriations Committee advanced the FY 2019 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) bill on a 30–1 vote. The National Science Foundation would receive $8.1 billion, a 4 percent increase over FY 2018. Within this allocation, the Education and Human Resources Directorate (EHR) would receive $915 million, a 1.4 percent increase, while Research and Related Activities (R&RA) would see a boost to $6.6 billion, a 3.5 percent increase.

Compared to the House CJS bill, the Senate bill would provide less overall funding for NSF, while EHR would have an increase. As noted in May Highlights, the House bill proposes to fund EHR at $902 million, the same level as in FY 2018. The Coalition for National Science Funding, which includes AERA as a member, has released statements to the House and Senate on the increases to the NSF budget.

Two additional provisions in the Senate bill report language would support programs at the Department of Justice to promote research-based best practices that increase school safety and reduce the impacts of violence on children and youth:

  • $1 million for the National Institute of Justice “to continue to develop a model and best practices for comprehensive school safety including identifying the root causes of violence in schools using the four prior years of research conducted under the  Comprehensive School Safety Initiative.”
  • $11 million to the Juvenile Justice Programs in the Department of Justice “for grants to help communities reduce crime and violence against children through support to State agencies and law enforcement entities including training and technical assistance to better serve youth exposed to violence.”

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on LHHS advanced its FY 2019 bill on a voice vote on June 15. The bill would hold the Department of Education budget at the FY 2018 level of $16.4 billion. A vote by the full House Appropriations Committee is expected July 11.

The bill would provide the IES with the same level of funding as in FY 2018, $613.5 million. In addition, all of the items within IES were funded at the FY 2018 levels, including the State Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) program.

The House report language states, “The Committee rejects the budget request to eliminate the Regional Educational Laboratories and Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems.” AERA has been working to ensure that the proposed elimination of SLDS in the President’s FY 2019 budget would not be reflected in the House or Senate bills.

In addition, the bill funds the Education Innovation and Research program at $145 million. Part of these funds would support competition to promote innovation and reform in STEM education. The bill would also provide $43 million, the same level as in FY 2018, for School Safety National Activities, including School Climate Transformation Grants for states and school districts to develop, adopt, or expand to more schools and support the implementation of evidence-based practices to improve behavior and school climates.

The National Institutes of Health would be provided $38.3 billion, an increase of $1.25 billion over FY 2018. The NICHD would receive $1.47 billion, an increase of $17.3 million.