Inside D.C.—Updated July 26, 2010

FY 2011 Appropriations

On July 15, the House Labor-Health and Human Services (HHS) Appropriations Subcommittee completed its markup of its FY 2011 funding bill. The good news is that the subcommittee, as expected, approved the $612 million allocation for state grants to adult education proposed by President Obama in his FY 2011 budget.

While this funding represents a $30 million increase in state grants as compared to the 2009 budget, it is actually a $15.9 million decrease from last year's total appropriation because a one-time adjustment was made in 2010 to correct for a funding calculation error that occurred from 2003–2008. Many states, in fact, will actually receive a lower appropriation than in 2010—at a time when states and localities are dramatically cutting funding due to budget deficits.

There is one new funding line of interest included in the bill—the President's request for a $30 million Workforce Innovation Fund. The purpose of this fund is to award competitive grants that encourage innovation and that identify and validate effective strategies for improving the delivery of services and outcomes for beneficiaries under programs funded under either Title I or II of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). Once approved by Congress, our expectation is that community-based adult literacy programs will be able to apply for grants through this initiative, but it will be several months, at least, before we will know more details.

The subcommittee also voted to retain the current $66 million in funding for Even Start. Many of you will recall that the President eliminated funding for Even Start in his proposed budget, so this was very welcome news!

Unlike in previous years, it is expected that the House will not move many of its funding bills past the subcommittee level, with only a few bills being considered by the full committee.

In the meantime, we are hearing that the Senate intends to mark up the Labor-HHS bill this week with hopes of completing a full committee markup soon thereafter.

But, there is little expectation that a Labor-HHS appropriations bill will see floor action in either chamber any time soon. Instead, appropriations insiders expect that the Labor-HHS bill, along with a variety of other appropriations bills, will be rolled up into one large omnibus appropriations bill that will be taken up after the November elections.

Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Title II

We do not currently expect action by Congress on WIA reauthorization this session, although we may see some draft language in September. In the meantime, we have publicly released our WIA "Part B" proposal to our membership for feedback and questions. Under this proposal, a separate grant program—in addition to the current state grants for adult education—would be created to fund basic reading and writing instruction at adult and family literacy programs for adults with very low literacy skills. We encourage you to provide us with feedback on this proposal if you have not done so already.

National Reporting System

The Office of Adult and Vocational Education (OVAE) at the U.S. Department of Education is in the process of considering some changes to the National Reporting System (NRS)—the accountability system for adult literacy programs funded by WIA. As part of this process, OVAE is hosting a meeting of state directors of adult education Washington, D.C. on August 4–5. Representatives from ProLiteracy and the National Coalition for Literacy also will be in attendance. In addition, ProLiteracy is in the process of developing its own set of recommendations on NRS reforms, which will be disseminated to ProLiteracy member organizations in the coming weeks.

Health Literacy

On May 27, HHS released the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy. It states that currently only 12 percent of all English-speaking adults in the United States have proficient health literacy skills. The report encourages the health community to work with community-based organizations, nonprofits, and policymakers to change the language of medical handouts, forms, websites, etc. in order to make them more accessible to those who fall into the lower literacy levels.

We at ProLiteracy are working to become more involved in health literacy issues, and we are asking our members to do the same. As part of this effort, ProLiteracy will work with Wisconsin Literacy on its fourth biennial Health Literacy Summit in 2011. You can read the full HHS report here.

National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week 2010

On July 20, the House of Representatives voted in favor of a resolution declaring the week of September 13 National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week 2010. Sponsored by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Col.), the resolution passed the House on a vote of 369-0. A full list of co-sponsors is available here. Congressmen Conyers, Guthrie, and Loebsack also spoke in favor of the resolution during the floor debate.

If your House representative co-sponsored the resolution, be sure to follow up with a note of thanks!

For questions or comments on any of the above, please contact Jeff Carter, director of policy and government affairs, at jcarter@proliteracy.org or by phone at (202) 577-3638.