A bipartisan, bicameral funding bill for the current fiscal year would level fund several key programs of interest to community colleges, including the maximum Pell grant award, Federal TRIO programs, Strengthening Community College Training Grants (SCCTG), registered apprenticeships and Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS). The bill is good news for community colleges, though not wholly unexpected.
Congress last week kicked it up a gear to pass funding bills for fiscal year 2026 as January 30 looms next Friday. That’s when the current temporary funding extension expires. If lawmakers don’t have measures passed, they can approve another continuing resolution — either another short-term one or one to cover the full year at FY 2025 funding levels — to prevent another government shutdown. The House aims to pass the bills released today by the end of the week, at which point the Senate would take them up next week.
Under the text of the FY 26 bill for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies, Democrats appear to have prevented some of the more draconian funding-cut proposals from the Trump administration. A sticking point during committee negotiations has been the Education Department’s transfer of several higher education and elementary and secondary programs to the Department of Labor. The compromise bill would not roll back the interagency transfers, but it would set deadlines to disburse grants and minimum staffing thresholds.
In an attempt to more forcibly assert congressional intent, the bill directs the administration to spend specific amounts for many programs as laid out in the “joint explanatory statement” that accompanies the legislation. One notable exception to this is the HEA Title III and V programs, which provide critical federal funding to minority-serving institutions. Last year, the administration deemed some of these programs to be unconstitutional and did not provide funds to them. While the bill released today provides funding for these programs as a group, and the explanatory statement details how Congress intends those funds to be spent on a program-by-program basis, the measure seems to leave the administration some room to spend the funds differently.
Funding amounts
In terms of funding allocations, the bill includes $22.5 billion for the Pell Grant program, with a maximum award of $7,395 — the same levels for FY 25. Also level-funded: TRIO ($1.2 billion), GEAR UP ($388 million), CCAMPIS ($75 million), registered apprenticeships ($285 million) and SCCTG ($65 million).
Under the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) program, $10 million would go to basic needs grants and $45 million to Postsecondary Student Success Grants. The bill also provides $7 million for an open textbook pilot program. Congress specifically protected these and other FIPSE programs, but seems to have left the door open for the administration to use some FIPSE funds for its own priorities, as it did in FY 25, after consulting with Congress.
In addition, the bill would provide $910 million for the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, $1.2 billion for the Federal Work Study program, $729 for adult education and $1 billion for historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions, via the Aid for Institutional Development program.
Department of Labor Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act programs, which were substantially reduced in an earlier House bill, would be level-funded. In addition, the bill would allot $23.5 million for the Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities.
* * *
Matthew Dembicki is associate vice president of communication at the American Association of Community Colleges, and edits CC Daily. Jim Hermes is AACC’s associate vice president of government relations.