The House and Senate appropriations committees have announced the processes for lawmakers to submit their fiscal year (FY) 2026 funding priorities to the committees. So now is the time for community colleges to urge their congressional representatives to include our priorities on their lists.
The funding priorities of the American Association of Community Colleges are indicated in our latest legislative priorities document and a recent letter to the appropriations committees.
Each year, the appropriations committees call on every member of Congress to submit their programmatic funding priorities for the next fiscal year. The submitted information includes the program name and recommended funding amount. The appropriations committees use this information in making decisions about which programs to fund and for how much.
Programmatic funding requests for the all-important Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) appropriations bill are due to the committees by May 23 in both the House and Senate. Members of Congress generally set their own deadlines for constituents to submit their funding priorities to them about two weeks before the appropriations committees’ deadlines. So time is of the essence to contact your congressional offices.
Champion for key programs
While the results of this information collection are not necessarily dispositive, they can make a real difference. Appropriators are much more likely to look kindly upon a program that is included on several members’ lists, versus one that they have not heard about at all. So it is especially important that community colleges make noise about programs for which they are the only or main beneficiary, like the Strengthening Community College Training Grants and the HEA Title III-A Strengthening Institutions Program.
The appropriations committees collect programmatic funding requests simultaneously with Congressionally Directed Spending requests, commonly referred to as “earmarks.” Like last year, there will be no earmarks in the FY 26 House LHHS bill, but the Senate is once again accepting requests for this bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee’s earmarks submission deadline is May 16, one week prior to the programmatic request deadline.
Many congressional offices offer a form for constituents to fill out for programmatic funding requests, just as they do for earmarks. Please check your representatives’ websites for those forms. For others, an emailed letter or similar communication will suffice. But no matter how it is done, make sure your members of Congress hear from you.
