Senate Labor, HHS, Ed, and Related Agencies Subcommittee FY 2011 Mark-Up

The Senate Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee has approved its FY 2011 mark-up which provides$169.6 billion in discretionary funding for the applicable Departments and related agencies.

The subcommittee’s mark provides $8.2 billion for Head Start & Early Head Start, matching the President’s FY 2011 budget request for the programs, exceeding the House subcommittee’s mark, and increasing funding by $990.3 million over enacted FY 2010 levels.  In the FY 2011 mark, base grants for agencies appropriated and expanded by the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)–including Head Start and the Child & Development Block Grant (CCDBG)–maintain the increases temporarily allocated through ARRA.  Head Start & Early Head Start programs, then, would sustain funding to serve the additional families enrolled in the program as a result of ARRA expansion.

In the mark, $3.1 billion is provided to CCDBG, an increase of $1 billion over enacted FY 2010 levels and exceeding the President’s budget request by $200 million.

Unlike the President’s budget request and the House subcommittee mark, the Senate subcommittee mark-up includes appropriations for the Early Learning Challenge Fund.  The Early Learning Challenge Fund would be housed at the Department of Education and would provide competitive grants to states to raise the bar for early childhood programs by encouraging and funding state activities to coordinate quality improvement activities across early learning settings (including childcare, Head Start, and pre-kindergarten programs), expand the number of low-income children in high-quality programs, and ensure that more children enter kindergarten ready for school.  Though its is one of the President’s priorities, President Obama’s budget request did not include the Early Learning Challenge Fund as, at the time of the request’s release, it was assumed that the Fund would be included in the student loan reform bill.

Comparison of Labor, HHS, and Ed Appropriations Funding Levels – FY 2010 Enacted, President’s Budget Request FY 2011, House Subcommittee Mark FY 2011, and Senate Subcommittee Mark FY 2011: