Last week the U.S. Senate’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education & Related Agencies approved a spending bill for higher education and research.

The bill makes several reductions to higher education and research. Among the reductions is $190 million in FY12 to the National Institutes of Health and the elimination of the National Center for Research Resources.

The bill does provide sufficient funding to maintain the maximum Pell Grant award of $5,550. To fund the Pell Grant the Senate proposes ending the interest subsidy on undergraduate student loans during the six-month grace period after a student graduates. The end of the interest subsidy is another impact to student borrower  benefits. In July Congress voted to end the in-school interest subsidy on federal loans to graduate students and eliminate the interest-rate reduction for on-time loan repayment for all borrowers as part of an effort to close the shortfall in the Pell program.

In addition to the Pell funding the Senate would provide same level support for Federal Work Study and the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant as in 2011. Finally the Senate provides $20 million for a new program to speed the translation of basic reserach into treatments and cures.

The full Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to consider the bill this week. It is unclear as to the fate of the bill beyond this step. The U.S. House has indicated that they will not take up the Senate’s version of the bill and word on the street is that it is unlikely Congres will pass a stand-alone spending measure for education and research. Instead Congress is expected to pass one or more continuing resolutions financing programs at the 2011 levels and eventually consolidating the bills into a single omnibus spending bill later this year.