The Basic Education Coalition (BEC) applauds Congressional leaders for passing the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018. We are especially grateful to Ranking Member Lowey (D-NY), Chairman Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), and SFOPs Subcommittee Chairman Rogers (R-KY) for their work on the Appropriations Committee to provide robust support for international basic education in fiscal year 2018.
BEC is thrilled to announce Kirby Henslee as our new Director of Government Relations. Kirby is a passionate advocate for educational opportunities for children in need. Kirby previously managed the international basic education policy portfolio for Save the Children-US and worked closely with BEC on basic education advocacy.
Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle publicly spoke out against the President's FY19 budget request. Congress is still working to finalize the FY18 budget and we expect to see an omnibus this week. BEC has been advocating to ensure that Basic Education is protected in the final FY18 appropriations bill and we are calling for the omnibus to include the House’s higher funding level for Basic Education of $800,000,000.
House and Senate Appropriations Committees are simultaneously beginning their work on the FY19 budget. As the FY19 budget process picks up steam on the Hill, BEC is submitting the following program funding request to key Congressional offices on the Appropriations Committees: “$925,000,000 for Basic Education, with at least $800,000,000 provided as Development Assistance. USAID is working with trusted partners to mobilize U.S. resources and expertise behind common goals. We respectfully urge Congress to seek funding at the requested level in order to expand effective existing programs as part of USAID’s Education Strategy.”
The President’s FY19 Budget Request proposed a 30% cut to the International Affairs Budget relative to the FY17 enacted level. Last year, the President also suggested deep cuts in the FY18 Budget Request, but Congress rose to the occasion and spoke out in defense of US foreign assistance. For an in depth analysis of the President’s FY19 International Affairs Budget Request, reference USGLC’s “Groundhog Budget.”
Basic Education was once again targeted for drastic cuts in the FY19 Budget Request. The Administration proposed $394,530,000 for Basic Education, which would be a 51% cut from the FY17 enacted level ($800,000,000). BEC will continue to work with partner organizations and allies on the Hill to ensure strong support for Basic Education throughout the FY19 appropriations process.
In other Administration news, President Trump announced on March 13th that he will be placing Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State with former Congressman and current CIA Director Mike Pompeo. BEC will work with Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff to submit Questions for the Record on the importance of international basic education for Director Pompeo’s confirmation hearing in April.
BEC signed onto a letter to SFOP members, urging them to use the higher basic education numbers in the House Appropriations bill in the final FY18 spending bills. BEC also signed onto a letter to House and Senate Budget Committee members, urging them to maintain the International Affairs spending levels. Finally, BEC spearheaded a letter, with 17 organizations, to House and Senate Appropriators, urging them to adopt the higher House funding levels for Basic Education.
The current continuing resolution which funds the US government expires on December 8th. It is expected that Congress will pass an additional short-term resolution to continue funding the government through late December and, if an agreement is not found, through January to give appropriators time to finalize their FY18 spending bills.
On Tuesday, October 31st, Ambassador Green testified before the House SFOPS subcommittee. You can find the full hearing here but some noteworthy quotes include:
Washington, D.C.- On Tuesday, October 24th, 40 representatives from NGOs, USAID, and the World Bank met to celebrate and discuss the World Bank’s World Development Report 2018 (WDR18): LEARNING to Realize Education’s Promise. The WDR is the World Bank’s flagship report, which is prepared annually on a specific topic of global importance. For the first time in almost 40 years of the WDR series, the focus is on education.
HR 2408, the Protecting Girls’ Access to Education Act, passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday, October 3rd. The bill’s lead sponsors are Representatives Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Robin Kelly (D-IL). This legislation priorities programs that support access to displaced children, especially girls. Additionally, it requires State and USAID to include data on education programs for displaced children in any report to Congress on disaster relief and recovery efforts. You can find the Republican Policy Committee summary and cost estimate here.
Congress: The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the FY18 budget resolution in the coming week. This is an essential step so that Republicans can address a key legislative priority, overhauling the tax code.
The Administration: The Trump administration continues to focus on the relief effort for areas affected by hurricanes.
On September 26th, Malala Yousafzai met with Ambassador Green, Representatives Rogers (R-KY) and Lowey (D-NY) and Senators Leahy and Shaheen to discuss girls education.
The Senate State Foreign Operations Appropriation bill was approved on September 7th. you can find the Majority’s summary here and the Minority’s here. A brief overview of the bill:
The House of Representatives will be voting on a 8 bill appropriations Omnibus the week of September 11th.
On September 8th, President Trump signed a continuing resolution that will keep the government funded until December 8th. The CR continues funding the government under FY17 levels with a slight reduction of .6781%. This translates to roughly a $5.4 million reduction in basic education funding.
July 19th, the House Appropriations Committee marked up the State, Foreign Operations FY18 Appropriations bill. You can find the Chairman’s statement here. In total, the bill is $10 billion lower than FY17 enacted levels. Basic education fared well in FY18, maintaining its $800 million appropriation mark...
The READ Act passed out of Senate Foreign Relations Committee by unanimous voice vote on May 25th. A technical amendment was added to the bill during the markup, changing the due date of the next USAID Education strategy from October 1st to one year from enactment of the READ Act. The bill will now need to pass the full Senate and the House of Representatives before it is sent to President Trump’s desk. The READ Act (HR 601/S 623) was introduced by Ranking Member Lowey and Rep. Reichert in the House and Senators Rubio and Durbin. You can find the bill here.
On May 23rd, President Trump released his FY18 budget request to the public. As expected, there was a $54 million increase in defense spending and a cut to the Non-Defense Discretionary accounts for the same amount. Almost every agency, excluding Defense, VA and Homeland, have reduced spending requests.
State Department and Foreign Assistance
The budget remained consistent with the President’s proposal in mid-March, proposing to slash the State Department’s budget by 32% for a total of $37.6 billion. This funding is split between base funding (long-term, enduring development and diplomacy programs) and Overseas Contingency Operations(OCO) funding.
The overall foreign aid and diplomacy spending request is $40.1 billion compared to FY17 levels of $53.1 billion. The White House has also split this funding between core funding ($28 billion) and OCO funds ($12 billion). Items of note include:
* The elimination of the Food for Peace program, which was just funded at over $1 billion in FY17 to fight famine across the world, and the McGovern-Dole program, shifting all funding into the International Disaster Assistance Account.
* The elimination of funding for international family planning programs
* A sharp cut to Global Health funding by $2.2 billion
* 37 countries will lose economic and development assistance
* Disaster aid (IDA) would receive a 43% cut
Basic Education and Development Assistance
The Development Assistance account, where the majority of basic education funding resides and has traditionally focused on long-term development efforts and overseen by USAID, has been merged with the Economic Support fund, which is overseen by State and is traditionally focused on providing assistance to strategic partners, to create the new Economic Support and Development Fund account. The new account would be overseen by the State Department and would see a 44% cut comparted to FY17 levels and assistance to 37 countries will be zeroed out. The Office of Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3) has received a 60% cut.
Basic Education funding will receive a 53% cut when compared to FY17 enacted levels. When comparing FY17 request to FY18 request, funding is cut by 33%. Funding for basic education will come from the newly created Economic Support and Development Fund account, overseen by State, and the Economic Support and Development Fund OCO, overseen by the Department of Defense and the State Department.
What’s next?
The President’s budget, by all accounts, is considered dead on arrival by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. House and Senate Appropriations Committees will begin holding hearings on the Administration’s request and will begin drafting their own appropriation bills in the coming months. Congress has until September 30th to negotiate and pass FY18 appropriation bills before funding for the government runs out.
Finally, as a reference, below are important links regarding the budget:
* The State Department FY18 budget page, including the Congressional Budget Justification
* The President’s Budget
* Major Savings and Reforms of the FY18 Budget (published by the White House)
* Budget Appendixes for each agency
* Supplemental Materials Released by the White House for the Budget
* USGLC’s Statement and Analysis of the Budget
* MFAN’s Statement on the Budget
* InterAction’s Budget Table with updated numbers
Banner photo: Room to Read
