Yesterday President Obama signed a two-week continuing resolution that reduces current federal spending by $4 billion and effectively eliminates the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership (LEAP) program.

The bill does not impact the current maximum Pell Grant.

With this  final hurdle for a short-term, stopgap bill completed, Congress now will begin to negotiate another continuing resolution to provide funding for the remainder of the c urrrent fiscal year. 

Last week the U.S. House passed H.R. 1 which would reduce federal spending by $61 billion, including reductions to higher education.  The U.S. Senate however has indicated that it will not pass a budget bill containing such deep reductions.

The Senate is currently drafting its own budget bill that is likely to include approximately $25 billion in reductions mosttly from President Obama’s FY12 budget request.  It is unclear at this time whether or not the Senate version will include similar cuts to higher education, in particular reductions to the maximum Pell Grant and the elimination of funding for the Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity (FSEOG) program.