AERA Continues Action on FY 2020 Appropriations
AERA Continues Action on FY 2020 Appropriations
 
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April 2019

In April, AERA submitted written testimony to the House subcommittees that support key federal agencies that advance education research and statistical infrastructure. On April 4, AERA provided testimony to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS), which included a request for $9 billion for the National Science Foundation and $8.45 billion for the Census Bureau.

The request for the Census Bureau reflects the Census Project’s recommendation, along with a specific allocation of at least $7.58 billion in direct funding for 2020 Census operations. AERA joined a letter from the Census Project to House and Senate CJS appropriations subcommittee leaders with that recommendation on April 16.  

AERA also submitted testimony on April 8 to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS). The testimony included requests of $670 million for the Institute of Education Sciences and $1.6 billion for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), reflecting a request from the Friends of NICHD.

The House LHHS appropriations subcommittee announced that it will to hold a markup hearing for its FY 2020 legislation on April 30, with expectations for the full committee to mark up the bill during the week of May 6.

Senate appropriations subcommittees are currently accepting written testimony; submissions to the CJS subcommittee are due May 10 (guidelines for submitting testimony), while submissions to the LHHS subcommittee are due June 3 (guidelines for submitting testimony).

Any boost for federal agencies requires a new budget deal that would increase the discretionary caps in the Budget Control Act. Without a deal, non-defense discretionary spending would be slashed by $55 billion. AERA joined a coalition of scientific societies in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to prioritize federal research investments and raise the budgetary caps imposed on the discretionary budget.

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