In late September, Congress completed work on a continuing resolution (CR), a temporary spending measure that will keep the government operating through December 20. The House passed the CR with a vote of 341–82, while the Senate approved it 78–18. The president will sign it into law shortly.
With these votes completed, Congress now stands in recess until after the election and effectively defers final decisions on fiscal year 2025 spending until then. When Congress returns, it will begin negotiating in earnest on final overall spending levels for each of the federal government’s twelve annual appropriations bills, including the FY25 Defense and FY25 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bills, and then individual program spending levels.
The stakes for these decisions could not be higher for language education, as funding levels between current House and Senate spending bills are starkly different. Where the House would dramatically cut funds to the Department of Education and eliminate multiple programs like Title II-A, the $2.19 billion professional development block grant, and Title III, the $890 million Title III English Language Acquisition program, the Senate would increase or at least level fund nearly all education programs. Additionally, the House Defense Appropriations bill would restore the World Language Advancement and Readiness Program (WLARP) to $15 million, whereas its Senate counterpart would only provide last year’s level of $10 million. A one-third cut to WLARP would dramatically restrict the number of new WLARP innovative world language program grants next year.
All of these final decisions and others will now have to wait until at least when Congress returns after the election—or perhaps longer. Some House Republican members are arguing that, if former president Trump wins the presidency again, FY25 Appropriations decisions should be kicked into the new year to allow him and a new Congress to make final funding decisions.
Jon Bernstein of the Joint National Commmittee for Languages commented, “While we can collectively breathe a sigh of relief that the federal government will not shut down and federal education programs will continue to function for about the next three months, our work to secure adequate funding for programs like Title II-A, Title III, and WLARP continues. Stay tuned for JNCL requests after the election to weigh in with your senators and representatives about the importance of these and other key language education programs. We need to be a persistent presence this fall and perhaps into the winter to make sure that Congress understands the need and the value of language education.”
