House Spending Bills A Double Barrelled Assault on Young Adults’ Financial Security

Posted July 19, 2017
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The Budget Bill

The budget bill under consideration rejects bipartisan budget agreements of recent years where defense and non-defense spending were adjusted in tandem. By dramatically increasing defense spending above the caps, this budget breaks this agreement, which has served as a central tenet of compromise and bipartisanship in passing recent budgets. This action, instead of eliminating the caps altogether, increases the chances of a government shutdown in the fall. Furthermore, the proposal:

  • Cuts vital investments in job training and education, as well as several other important programs, by $1.3T over ten years.
  • Opens the back door for House Republicans to try again to drastically cut Medicaid, CHIP, and SNAP through reconciliation.
  • Opens up the opportunity to fundamentally alter the availability of student aid.

This budget outlines a blueprint to dismantle programs that students rely on and have planned their futures around. Without any data to point to, the budget states that the Pell Grant program is on “shaky financial ground,” aiming to undermine its value, despite being one of our nation’s longest standing social mobility programs. This echoes previous budgets where mandatory Pell was subsequently eliminated and serves as a troubling warning the program is under threat of fundamental deterioration.

The Appropriations Bill

proposed appropriations bill begins cutting immediately. The bill would:

  • Double down on the potential Pell cuts in the budget by, on top of cutting mandatory “rainy day” funding, sucking $3.3B out of the program, and fails to renew the annual inflation adjustment to the maximum award, ensuring the purchasing power of Pell would continue to wither away;
  • Eliminate the Child Care Access Means Parents In School (CCAMPIS) program that provides low-income parents with affordable child care access so they can stay enrolled and graduate;
  • Freezes investment levels in Federal Work Study and Federal Supplemental Equal Opportunity Grants for low-income students at a time where further investment is needed;
  • Eliminates dedicated funding to scale up apprenticeships, a proven bipartisan model for job training and education;
  • Contains policy riders that further undermine the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, a law that has enhanced millions of young people’s ability to obtain health care services.

“The future of our generation shouldn’t be sacrificed for budget austerity,” said Young Invincibles’ Government Affairs Director Reid Setzer. “Cutting Pell Grants and killing the mandatory “rainy day” funding stream in the program will mean instant cuts to awards and eligibility, undermining recent bipartisan improvements to the program and making its financial future much more unstable. Failing to invest in grant aid and apprenticeships, eliminating subsidized loans, and narrowing forgiveness programs will result in students taking on more debt, with fewer avenues to escape that burden. Finally, pushing a budget vision that enables the destruction of programs to ensure everyone from newborns, children, their parents, and the elderly can get sustained health care and access to food is senseless and cruel.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Allie Aguilera, [email protected], 202-734-6529