9/21/12

Senate Passes Stopgap Spending Bill

A six-month stopgap spending bill was approved by the Senate on September 19, and now awaits the President’s signature.

Funding for discretionary programs, such as Education, requires the annual passage of 12 spending bills by September 30. Although the House had approved 7 of the 12 bills, the Senate had approved none. The stop-gap measure extends funding for the discretionary programs through March 27, 2013, at a 0.6 percent increase over FY 2012 levels.

As a result, the maximum Pell grant award for FY 2013 will remain unchanged at $5,550. All programs will continue to operate under the terms and conditions of FY 2012, preventing a government shutdown and allowing Congress to delay addressing budget issues until after the election.

Upon their return to Washington, lawmakers will be forced to address across-the-board cuts to nonexempt discretionary programs. The Budget Control Act of 2011, in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, created a deficit reduction “super committee”, and mandated that it create $1.2 trillion in budget savings by midnight on November 23, 2011. Because the super committee failed to reach an agreement, mandatory across-the-board cuts of approximately 8 percent are scheduled to take effect in January, 2013. Pell grants would be exempt from these cuts for FY 2013.

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Mary Heid
Director for Default Prevention, Compliance & Training Services
OCAP Communications
P.O. Box 3000
Oklahoma City, OK 73101-3000
Communications@ocap.org
www.ocap.org