Yesterday, Congress passed a stopgap continuing resolution (CR) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 to provide temporary funding for the federal government through December 11. The Senate passed the bill (78-20) on Wednesday morning, with the House following suit (277-151) later in the day. The president quickly signed the measure into law before the midnight deadline to avoid a government shutdown.
While the CR is intended to put the federal budget on autopilot by continuing the current funding levels for Perkins and other education programs until a long-term agreement can be reached, it also includes a .2108 percent across-the- board reduction. This was necessary to keep overall spending within the required budget caps for this year. Due to complexities in the way Perkins funds are budgeted and distributed, this reduction will impact Perkins Basic State Grant advance funding from FY 2015 that is available for allocation to the states beginning on October 1. We will provide the revised state funding allocations for Perkins once that information is made available by the U.S. Department of Education. While the reduction in funding will likely be very small for those states that see a reduction (some will not be cut at all), we will work to ensure those funds are restored in the final FY 2016 funding bill as it has been in previous years.
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