On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010 (H.R. 4899). The Act is a mixed bag for higher education.

H.R. 4899 included a provision to provide $10 billion to help school districts avoid educator layoffs. Though this is good news, the funding provision comes at the cost of reductions ($800 million) to several of President Obama’s key education initiatives. 

The initiatives vulnerable to reductions have been referred to as “new discretionary grant awards”. Among these awards includes a reduction of $500 million to the Race to the Top Round 2 awards. Washington is one of thirty states competing for Race to the Top dollars in the second round.

On a more positive note, the House bill includes $4.95 billion to pay down most of the $5.7 billion Pell Grant shortfall. The $4 billion included in the bill is not based on new estimates regarding the Pell Grant shortfall, but is the most the bill’s authors could include into the package of spending and offsets. If the package passes the Senate with the Pell Grant funding included there still remains a $717 million shortfall in Pell funding.

Finally, the Act passed by the House included a budget enforcement resolution that would limit discretionary spending for FY11 to $1.12 trillion, which is $7 billion less than the President requested in his budget in February.

The Act passed by the U.S. House must still be approved by the U.S. Senate.  As the Senate considers the Act, it is expected to face pressures from the education and higher education sectors, the U.S. House, and the White House which has indicated that the President would likely veto any final bill that includes reductions to education reforms.