Legislative Update for August

Congress is in its extended August recess and will return after Labor Day facing a daunting agenda. The war in Iraq will dominate much of the debate, with children’s health insurance, defense authorization, the farm bill, higher education, and several other bills also due to come up. Congress must tackle all the appropriations bills, including that for Labor-HHS-Education. While the House has passed its version, the Senate bill has only been reported out of Committee.

As noted previously, the House bill treats afterschool funding more favorably. It provides a $125 million increase for 21st Century Community Learning Centers, compared with an $18 million increase in the Senate bill. It also provides a $75 million increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, which received no increase in the Senate bill. Members of Congress need to hear from their constituents about the importance of increased spending on afterschool.

Even though no spending bills have been completed, Congressional leaders are hoping to avoid having to resort to lumping all bills that have not been passed into an omnibus bill. They are more likely to put several bills into a “minibus”, where they could combine an always-controversial bill such as Labor-HHS with a more popular, must-do bill such as spending on veterans. President Bush has pledged to veto bills such as Labor-HHS, which contains a higher level of spending than his budget proposed.

The other legislation important to afterschool is the reconsideration of the No Child Left Behind Act (actually the reauthorization of the Elementary-Secondary Education Act). 21stCCLC will be reauthorized in this bill, which also will make changes to the Supplemental Education Services provisions. Congressman George Miller (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, has stated that he intends to not only consider a bill in Committee during September, but also see it pass the House. This is an ambitious plan. While Senate plans have not been so public, there is talk that the HELP Committee is also working toward considering a bill this fall.