NLA Info: House & Senate Appropriators Agree on Literacy Funding

[Gullion, Christy]

During recent closed-door negotiation sessions, House and Senate
appropriators agreed on FY 2000 funding levels for literacy programs.  The
money available to states to award to local adult education, ESL, family,
and community-based literacy programs next year may be more than last year's
allocation.  While not at the level requested by the President, the new
funding levels may help to increase the number of full-time teachers,
instructional hours per student, computer stations, and availability of
child care and transportation services for program participants.

Earlier this month, the House voted to cut literacy spending by a total of
$57 million while the Senate approved an increase of $113 million.  Since
then, House and Senate appropriators have been meeting together to determine
the final funding levels for literacy programs.  The House-Senate agreement
represents an increase of $68.8 million over 1999 funding levels -- an all
time high for literacy program funding.

This measure, which also includes funding for other education, health and
labor programs, will now be sent to the President for signature or veto.
There is growing speculation that the President will veto the bill because
of low funding levels for a variety of programs.  If this happens, the House
and Senate appropriators, along with the White House, will begin new
discussions to determine final funding levels for each program.  Spending
for literacy programs could be changed during these discussions.

The following chart compares the House-Senate agreement, the original House
and Senate proposals, and the White House proposal for FY 2000 with actual
funding levels for FY1999.

		(Funding in millions of dollars.)

Program			Agreement	Senate		House		1999
Levels
Adult Education State Grants	$420.9 		$468 		$365
$365
Reading Excellence Act		$259.4		$260 		$200
$260 
Even Start Family Literacy	$148.5 		$145 		$150
$135 
National Programs/ESL Initiative	$13.9 		$14 		$7
$14
National Institute for Literacy	$5.9		$6 		$6
$6 
Prison Literacy			$4.9		$5 		$4.7
$4.7 
		

Christy Gullion
Senior Policy Analyst
National Institute for Literacy
1775 Eye Street, NW, Suite 730
Washington, DC  20006-2401
cgullion at nifl.gov
202-233-2033 (voice)
202-233-2050 (fax)
Institute's Homepage:  www.nifl.gov