Proposed Bill to Increase IES Funding

The Senate Democrats released their FY 2022 appropriations bills, including the Labor/Health/Education appropriations bill that includes funding for IES. The bill matches the President’s request on RD&D by calling for a $70 million increase in funding to a new total of $267.9 million. The bill also increases funding for NCSER by $6.5 million, bringing it to $65 million! As you may remember, the President’s budget flat funded NCSER.  The overall IES level of funding is increased by $172 million with nearly $70 million of this providing administrative funding for IES separately (rather than through the overall Education budget).  Research-focused organizations have been concerned about declining IES staff levels. In theory, this should give them sufficient funding to begin to rebuild their staffing. This is the Senate Democrats’ proposal and does not reflect the input of the Senate GOP. Congress will attempt to likely reach agreement over all of its appropriations bill in December with the possibility for negotiations extending into the new year.