House Appropriations Chair Kay Granger (R-TX) notified the subcommittee chairs of the upcoming schedule for marking up the twelve FY 2024 spending bills later this spring. 

According to her proposed schedule, the first set of subcommittee mark ups will occur on May 17 and 18, with full committee consideration of those bills May 23-25.  The second set of mark ups will take place on June 7 and 8, with full committee consideration June 13-15. It is not yet known where the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee, which oversees much of the higher education funding, will fall in the mark up calendar. 

Scheduling the mark ups indicates Rep. Granger’s desire to move the appropriations process as smoothly as possible, while the House leadership deals with the impasse over raising the debt ceiling. While a spending total has not publicly been finalized, it is expected that House Appropriators will start from the total of $1.47 trillion set in the Limit, Save, Grow bill that raises the debt ceiling and caps spending. How the total is divvied up among the subcommittees will be revealed closer to the time of the mark ups. 

Much speculation has surfaced about how to interpret the debt ceiling provisions and messaging about lowering spending to FY 2022 levels and limiting growth in government spending to 1%, while protecting funding for defense and veterans programs.  If subcommittee allocations are negotiated with these parameters in mind, the funding for non-defense-related agencies could be cut by as much as 22%. As in any year, the appropriations process takes time, give and take, and negotiations to ensure priority programs are funded and cuts are not slashed across the board. 

NAICU submitted a FY 2024 appropriations request for the student aid and institutional aid programs in March, which is anchored by a request to increase the Pell Grant maximum to work toward doubling the grant to $13,000.