Today, the Senate approved a procedural measure to advance the budget agreement, known as the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. The procedural vote will allow the bill to proceed to a vote on final passage this week. As we previously reported, the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 budget agreement was reached by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) after weeks of negotiations in the budget conference committee. The House passed the Bipartisan Budget Act by an overwhelming vote of 332-94 on December 12, before the chamber adjourned for the holiday recess. The Senate is expected to vote on final passage of the bill as early as Wednesday.
The agreement would replace a total of $63 billion of sequester cuts over two years. For FY 2014, this will effectively restore an estimated 87 percent of the cuts that were put into place through sequestration last year. The overall discretionary funding cap for FY 2014 would be $1.012 trillion, with $492 billion for funding non-defense programs that include education, workforce training and CTE. Please take a few minutes to contact your Senators and urge them to support the Ryan-Murray Bipartisan Budget Act!
If the budget agreement is approved in the Senate, the appropriations committees will begin the task of setting funding levels for individual programs like Perkins before the current funding bill expires on January 15. ACTE, with the support of CTE advocates nationwide, will continue to push Congress to restore funding for Perkins!
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