Yesterday, the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education approved a $176.4 million FY11 appropriations bill.

The bill provides $2 billion more for the U.S. Department of Education’s discretionary programs than was allocated in FY10, but $1.5 billion less than the Obama Administration requested.

In addition, the bill moves $5.7 billion for the Pell Grant shortfall, which would have been moved to the mandatory side of the budget under Obama’s budget, and counts it as part of Obama’s discretionary budget request.

No education amendments wer adopted in the subcommittee.

The next step for the appropriations bill is the full House Appropriations Committee. The full committee has not scheduled a time to work the bill to date. There is some speculation that a full committee work-up of the bill may not take place, which means Congress would have to pass a Continuing Resolution in order to provide FY11 funding for U.S. Department of Education programs.