On Thursday, lawmakers averted a partial government shutdown after both the House and Senate cleared a two-step continuing resolution (CR) to allow final FY 2024 appropriations work to wrap up in the coming weeks. The CR moves the funding deadlines from March 1 and March 8 to March 8 and March 22.  

The vote will set up a first tranche of six full-year spending bills that the House is expected to vote on next Wednesday. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said that legislative text for Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy and Water, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development will be released over the weekend.  

Reports state that the second batch of bills, which includes the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies funding bill, will be considered by the March 22 deadline, although no details about this bill have been released.  

Included in the CR was a provision that makes changes to the FAFSA Simplification Act. Lawmakers are describing the change as a technical fix to the way the Department of Education calculates the amount of financial aid a dependent student qualifies for each year. It also adds $7.7 billion to support Pell Grants over four years. Without this technical correction, the Pell grant program would have faced a significant shortfall for fiscal year (FY) 2025 because more dependent students would be receiving larger Pell grants that Congress intended when it most recently updated the formula for calculating financial aid eligibility.  

As the appropriations process wraps up in the coming weeks, ACTE will keep you informed on the funding levels for the Department of Education and continue to advocate for the highest level of Perkins funding possible!