This week lawmakers in both Chambers introduced proposals to expand federal Pell grant eligibility to high-quality, shorter-term Career Technical Education (CTE) programs. Elsewhere, the House and Senate CTE Caucuses are seeking support for a resolution in honor of CTE Month this February. Lawmakers have also finalized committee assignments for entities that will determine CTE funding and policymaking over the next two years.

Short-Term Pell Proposals Introduced

Earlier this week,  Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Mike Braun (R-IN) reintroduced the Jumpstarting our Businesses by Supporting Students (JOBS) Act (S.161)– legislation that would expand federal Pell grant funding eligibility to high-quality, shorter-term CTE programs that meet certain criteria. This legislation has been a longstanding federal priority for Advance CTE as a key way to provide more learners quality postsecondary pathways that lead to jobs in growing sectors of the economy. A bipartisan group of 36 Senators also co-sponsored the legislation upon introduction, underscoring the significant level of support the proposal continues to have in the chamber. A one-page summary of the bill can be found here.

Additionally, late last week House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Education and Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC), along with several Republican colleagues, introduced the Promoting Employment and Lifelong Learning (PELL) Act (H.R. 496)– legislation that also seeks to expand federal Pell grant eligibility for certain short-term postsecondary CTE programs. This legislation differs from the JOBS Act in several ways and is a competing proposal to the bipartisan JOBS Act which is also expected to be reintroduced in the House this Congress. The text of the bill can be found here and a summary of the proposal can be accessed here. 

Be Sure to Encourage Congress to Support CTE Month Resolutions!

Co-chairs of the Senate CTE Caucus, Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Todd Young (R-IN), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) are currently circulating a resolution designating February as CTE Month. These leaders are asking their colleagues to co-sponsor this resolution and Advance CTE encourages members to reach out to your Senators to encourage them to sign on to this resolution as soon as possible. 

Concurrent to these efforts, House CTE Caucus co-chairs Reps. Thompson (R-PA) and Bonamici (D-OR) are also circulating a resolution in the chamber for this same purpose and are seeking co-sponsors ahead of planned introduction on February 8th. However, the resolution will be open throughout the month to add more co-sponsoring members ahead of planned passage at the end of the month. Be sure to encourage your members of Congress to co-sponsor by clicking here!

Both of these resolutions are important ways in which CTE can be elevated amongst federal policymakers and allows Advance CTE and the Association for Career and Technical Education to continue to highlight the benefits CTE programs provide for learners and the need to continue to invest in these efforts. 

House Education Committee Lays Out Vision for New Congress

The newly renamed Education and the Workforce Committee—the House entity responsible for CTE policymaking—has continued to take important steps this week to organize and map out an agenda for the 118th Congress. Earlier in the week, House Democrats, led by Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA), announced committee assignments for the new Congress. This comes after Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) announced her party’s members slated for the committee last week. Following these necessary first steps, Chair Foxx held an organizing meeting this week where the committee adopted a set of rules and a related oversight plan for the coming year. 

“Oversight will be a major priority for this Committee in the 118th Congress. . . Federal agency heads might as well get comfortable with this hearing room—they are going to be here a lot” Chair Foxx said, in part, at the outset of the meeting. The oversight plan includes a wide range of issues that will likely be focused on by the committee this Congress including an examination of how pandemic relief funding for education was used, as well as several workforce programs authorized by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). In a separate interview this week, Chair Foxx also shared that she plans to prioritize higher education and workforce development legislation this Congress and is hopeful about finding consensus on short-term Pell grant proposals outlined above. Committee leadership has also shared that the Education and Workforce Committee will hold its first hearing of the new Congress titled, “American Education in Crisis”, scheduled for February 8th. 

Senate Organization Take Shape

On the other side of the Capitol, the 118th Congress has gotten off to a slower start than the House. This has been due, in part, to efforts to determine where newly elected Senators would be assigned for the coming Congress, particularly amongst Republicans who have six new members joining the caucus this year. Late last week, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced committee assignments for Democrats, including for the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee—the entity with responsibility for K-12 education policymaking. 

Of note, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will chair the HELP committee, replacing longtime Chair Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) who will be leading the Appropriations Committee in the new Congress. In addition, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) will be joining the HELP Committee this Congress, filling a vacancy left by Sen. Jackie Rosen (D-NV) who has been assigned elsewhere. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) similarly announced assignments for committees in the upper chamber this week, including HELP. Sens. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Tim Scott (R-SC) are set to leave the committee and will be replaced by freshman Sens. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK). 

Steve Voytek, Policy Advisor