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Last week, National Skills Coalition submitted a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees urging them to ensure that key workforce and education programs are adequately funded in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016..
With passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2015 last week, lifting the overall budget caps for non-defense discretionary programs for FY 2016, appropriators are now responsible for establishing new top-line funding levels – known as 302(b) allocations– for each of the twelve annual appropriations bills. The allocations that were established earlier this year for the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill (Labor-HHS) were nearly $4 billion below FY 2015 levels, and NSC strongly encourages the committees to ensure that new allocations take advantage of increased budget caps and allow for additional investments in job training and education.
Specifically, NSC urged that Labor-HHS allocations must provide sufficient resources to achieve the following:
Congress must make final FY 2016 funding decisions by December 11, when the current Continuing Resolution expires. National Skills Coalition will continue to monitor the appropriations process and provide updates to the field.
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