FY 2020 Federal Budget

February 2020

FY 2020 Federal Appropriations Allocations

To view the final FY 2016-2020 appropriations allocations, please see the chart that APLU has compiled.

December 2019

FY 2020 Federal Appropriations Update

(As provided by APLU)

The House and Senate have now passed Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations measures, sending the bills to President Trump for his signature.

It’s important to remember how we began the year. With the prior budget agreement expired, caps imposed by the Budget Control Act were set to take effect, imposing severe limits on spending that would have guaranteed a tough year for our priorities. APLU and member institutions were a central part of advocacy pushing Congress to reach a bipartisan agreement to lift the caps. With a budget deal reached and two continuing resolutions temporarily extending government funding at Fiscal Year 2019 levels, Congress gave itself room to reach agreement on a final FY2020 appropriations package.

Below are select highlights of funding levels in the bills. For more details, please see the APLU chart of our appropriations priorities, which we continuously update. Below is also information on some positive tax policy measures that were attached to the appropriations bills.

Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration (bill text and report language)

Within the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) accounts, the bill includes an increase for the Agricultural and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) of $10 million over FY2019, putting FY2020 funding at $425 million. The Hatch Act and Cooperative Forestry (McIntire-Stennis) accounts are maintained at FY2019 levels while the 1890 institutions received a positive increase in Extension services, rising from $48.6 million in FY2019 to $57 million in the FY2020 bill. Finally, the bill provides $5 million to USDA's New Beginning for Tribal Students program, a new program conceived by South Dakota State University President Barry Dunn and created under the Farm Bill. The program provides grants from USDA to land-grant colleges and universities that provide targeted support for tribal students. Recipient institutions can use the funding for recruiting, tuition, tutoring, counseling, or other student services that would increase enrollment and retention at the university.

Commerce-Justice-Science (bill text and report language)

The consolidated appropriations bill allocates $8.28 billion to the National Science Foundation, representing a 2.5 percent increase from FY2019.

The bill provides increases from FY2019 levels to many National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) accounts, such as $7.139 billion to its Science Mission Directorate, $784 million to the Aeronautics Research Directorate, $1.1 billion to Space Technology, and $48 million to the Space Grant Program.

Within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the bill allocates $548 million to Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, representing a 4.4 percent increase. The funding package funds the Sea Grant Program (including the Marine Aquaculture Program) at $87 million, representing an 8.75 percent increase from FY2019.

The consolidated appropriations bill also provides increases to the National Institute for Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnerships and National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. Lastly, the package funds the Economic Development Administration’s Regional Innovation program at $33 million, an increase of 40.4 percent from FY2019 levels. The president’s budget proposed closing the EDA.

Defense (bill text and report language)

The final appropriations bill includes a 2.9 percent increase for DoD Science and Technology Basic Research 6.1 accounts, allocating $2.603 billion for FY2020. Combined, 6.1-6.3 Science and Technology accounts would receive a 0.7 percent increase under the bill, growing from $15.96 billion in FY2019 to $16.074 for FY2020. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) also saw an increase of 0.8 percent for FY2020. The bill overall provides $3.458 billion for the agency.

Energy and Water Development (bill text and report language)

The consolidated appropriations bill provides funding increases for both the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science and ARPA-E. DOE’s Office of Science would receive a 6.3 percent increase to $7 billion, and ARPA-E would receive a 16.1 percent increase to $425 million.

Interior and Environment (bill text and report language)

Within the United States Geological Survey, the bill provides the Water Resources Research Institutes with $10 million and the Cooperative Research Units with $24 million. These allocations represent increases for both accounts and match APLU’s requests.

The bill provides EPA’s Office of Science and Technology with a $10 million increase from FY2019 levels to $716 million. Additionally, the bill provides the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) $162.3 million, a 4.7 percent increase from FY2019 levels. The Joint Fire Science Program would be flat-funded at $6 million.

Labor-Health and Human Services-Education (bill text and report language)

Health and Human Services
The final bill provides $41.7 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), representing an increase of $2.6 billion from FY2019 enacted levels.

The bill also provides the Title VII Health Professions and Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development programs with $652.5 million for previously funded programs in FY2020, a $10.8 million (2 percent) increase from FY2019 enacted levels. With the inclusion of programs receiving first-time funding, the bill provides Title VII and Title VIII $684.5 million in FY2020, a $42.8 million (7 percent) increase from FY2019 levels.

Additionally, the bill provides flat funding of $338 million for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The president’s budget proposed eliminating the agency and consolidating AHRQ into the NIH as a new institute.

Education
The final appropriations bill includes $22.475 billion for the Pell Grant program, level with FY2019 appropriations. It would increase the maximum Pell Grant award to $6,345, matching APLU’s conference request—representing three consecutive years of increases to the maximum Pell award. The bill also rescinds $500 million from the Pell reserve, substantially less than the $1.334 billion called for in the Senate bill.

The bill funds Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant (SEOG) Program at $865 million, the Federal Work Study Program (FWS) at $1.18 billion and the TRIO program at $1.09 billion, representing an increase of about 3 percent across these programs from FY2019. Under the bill, the GEAR UP program sees a 1 percent increase over FY2019, with $365 million in appropriations. The bill provides the International Education Programs with the biggest funding bump, netting a 6 percent increase to $76.2 million. The bill funds the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) program at $23 million.

The bill provides the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) with $623.5 million in funding, an increase of about 1 percent over FY2019 appropriations.

State and Foreign Operations (bill text and report language)

The bill provides the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with $235 million for higher education, including $35 million for partnerships between United States higher education institutions and those in developing countries to increase international higher education capacity. This represents flat funding from FY2019 levels.

The bill report provides the Bureau for Food Security with $55 million for the Feed the Future Innovation Labs, also representing flat funding. The report accompanying the appropriations measure notes that the agreement includes FY2018 levels for USAID's Higher Education Solutions Network.

Tax Extenders and Other Measures (amended bill text)

Within the appropriations package, Congress included a repeal of the parking tax put in place by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). TJCA taxed employer-provided parking and transportation benefits as unrelated business income. The bill also repeals the “kiddie” tax, another change in the TCJA, which taxed nonqualified scholarship amounts for minors at the higher, trust rate rather than the nominal tax rate. The bill also repealed the “Cadillac” tax, an excise tax on high-cost employer-provided health insurance plans that was included in the Affordable Care Act.

Finally, the bill retroactively reinstates and extends the above-the-line tuition tax deduction, which expired at the end of 2017. The bill reinstates the deduction from December 31, 2017 through the end of the calendar year in 2020.