Last week, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee Chairman, Hal Rogers (R-KY), announced both the FY12 allocations for each of the 12 appropriations subcommittees, also known as the 302(b) allocations, and provided a tentative timeline for completing each bill.
The allocations released would provide $139.218 billion to the Labor, HHS, and Education Subcommittee. The allocation for the Labor, HHS, and Education Subcommittee is over $18 billion less than the recently agreed to FY11 level and more than $40 billion below the President’s FY12 budget request.
The reductions in funding from the prior fiscal year and also from the President’s proposed FY12 budget are raising some concerns in higher education. Advocates are concerned that the the funding level raises significant concerns regarding the ability to adequately fund NIH and the Pell Grant Program.
Chairman Rogers stated that completion of work on the 12 fiscal year 2012 Appropriations bills should be finished by the end of the fiscal year on September 30th. This plan includes marking up and approving each bill at both the Subcommittee and Full Committee levels in the next few months before the August recess.