AASA August Advocacy Updates

August 2, 2021

It is officially recess for Congress, but the work continues. Three items/updates we want to relay to you:

• FY22 Appropriations: Last week, the House completed its voting on amendments to the FY2022 LHHS-Education appropriations bill. That bill is part of a 7-bill FY22 omnibus package that was ultimately passed by the house. Education did receive an increase, and brings the House tally to having passed 9 of the 12 appropriations bills. USED saw an overall increase of $29.3 billion, compared to the CDC/s increase of $2.7 billion. The House LHHS includes a $20 billion increase for Title I, following the lead of the Biden administration, funds which would move through a new Equity Grant Program. The bill also includes a $5 million increase for REAP, an $85 million increase for Title IV-A, and a $2.6 billion increase for IDEA Grants to states. We will watch to see how the Senate drafts their approps bills, and monitor FY22 funding conversations as they continue to evolve.
• Infrastructure: Late on Sunday, the Senate introduced the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It is loosely based on the broad outline negotiated by a bipartisan group of Senators and the White House earlier this summer. The bill totals nearly $1 trillion in infrastructure funding, but is glaringly devoid of meaningful supports for public schools. The school-related provision totals $500 million over FY2022-26. While it is good and historic that public schools are included in the national infrastructure bill, the funding level for schools is embarrassingly low: in terms of scale, in relation to other infrastructure—even though school district capital outlay is the second largest sector for capital outlay—nearly the same as for highways, nationally—this bill dedicates only .04% --not four percent, but four hundredths of a percent toward public school infrastructure—it falls incredibly short on what the needs are and the importance of this sector is. AASA continues to support the Rebuild America’s Schools Act, and believes that should be the starting point for conversations about schools within the broader package. We will continue to monitor this legislation. 
• Secure Rural Schools/Forest Counties: The pending infrastructure bill includes a provision that would extend the Secure Rural Schools/Forest Counties program for three years. More specifically, it includes an extension for FY21-22-23 without a 5% reduction, and provides that for FY21 and each fiscal year thereafter the amount is equal to the amount of FY2017. Big thanks to Senator Wyden, who is the champion of this provision, along with Sens. Manchin, Crapo, Murkowski, Tester, Risch, Merkley and Barrasso.