The House Appropriations Committee late last week approved a 1989 appropriations bill that includes $21.9 billion for the Education Department, nearly $1 billion more than the Administration’s request and $1.7 billion more than the 1988 appropriation.
The bill includes $4.6 billion for the Chapter 1 compensatory-education program, an increase of $336 million over the 1988 funding level.
Chapter 2 block grants are slated for $489 million, $10.8 million over the 1988 appropriation but $51 million below the Administration’s budget request.
For student financial assistance programs, the bill includes $5.9 billion, almost $200 million less than the Administration had sought, but $362 million over the 1988 level. Guaranteed Student Loans would receive nearly $3.2 billion in the panel’s blueprint, $600 million more than in 1988.
Education programs for the handicapped would receive $52 million over the 1988 level, bringing funding up to $1.9 billion, while vocational- and adult-education programs would hit the $1-billion mark, up $76 million over this year.
The bill contains about $452 million less than the version approved in a recent closed session by the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education subcommittee, because changing budgetary assumptions decreased the overall amount House appropriators had to work with, and subcommittee allocations were reduced.
Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations Committee refused last week to increase the $39.4-billion allocation earmarked for its Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee, despite appeals from 20 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, who stressed the importance of funding education programs.
The $39.4-billion allocation is about $800 million less than recommended by the 1989 budget resolution passed by the full Senate last week, and $100 million less than requested by the Administration.
