On July 29, NAESP and the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) expressed concern with the Fiscal Year 2014 Labor-Health & Human Services-Education (LHHS) appropriations bill in a formal letter to the House LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee.

The House LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee delayed their consideration of the 2014 funding bill, originally scheduled for July 25. There is still no word on when, or if, the Committee will consider this bill, which has an overall funding allocation nearly twenty percent below current levels, which includes cuts from sequestration. Given the fact that Congress adjourns for a month-long Congressional recess this week, it is unlikely at this point that the House will take up the education funding legislation.

The House Appropriations Committee Chairman, Hal Rogers (R-KY), earlier announced the top-line funding levels for each appropriations bill, which is the only publically released detail at this time. The programmatic details of the LHHS appropriations bill will not be released until the Subcommittee considers the legislation. In the letter to appropriators, NAESP and NASSP stated that “school principals, education stakeholders and the public deserve to know how the Committee would fund federal education programs,” and urged the Subcommittee to have an “open debate about deep cuts in education funding by holding a Subcommittee markup.”

NAESP will continue to closely monitor the appropriations and budget process, as the next fiscal year approaches on October 1. Following the August Congressional recess, Congress will have exactly nine working days that both legislative chambers are in session before Fiscal Year 2014 begins. This leaves little time to reach a compromise between the House and Senate to approve a short-term spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.

Read the NAESP and NASSP letter.