Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed a proposed FY2012 resolution with a vote of 235-193.

The budget would  impact higher education in several ways.

• Rolls back  the 2012-13 maximum Pell Grant to FY2008 levels, resulting in a maximum Pell Grant of $2,090 for the 2012-13 academic year.
• Calls for the repeal and defunding of the Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act (HCERA), which includes mandatory funding for the Pell Grant program. This could further lower the maximum grant by $690. 
• Changes to limit the lifetime limits of the Pell Grant program
• Rescinds recent expansions to the Need Analysis formula
• Eliminates administrative cost allowances to schools
• Repeals the expansion of income-based repayment provisions in the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), and 
• Eliminates interest subsidies on all Stafford Loans.

The budget resolution is a nonbinding resolution that sets broad spending levels that appropriations’ committees use to set specific spending levels for federal programs. In addition, it is unlikely that the Democratic-controlled Senate will approve the measure.

The U.S. House Democrats offered a substitute FY2012 budget resolution that was defeated by the House. The Democrats’ substitute proposed using mandatory spending to maintain the maximum Pell Grant at $5,550 and to pay for this by reducing spending on other programs. The substitute resolution also established a deficit neutral reserve fund for college affordability’ to allow the House Budget Committee Chairman to revise the allocations, aggregates, and other appropriate levels in the resolution for legislation that makes college more affordable, including efforts to maintain the maximum Pell grant award, as long as it does not increase the deficit.