EduJobs Funding Dead

So much for stimulus.

Just before the July 4 congressional recess, the House passed a massive piece of legislation: a war-funding bill with billions in funding for domestic programs included, and a budget enforcement resolution attached. The bill moved on to the Senate, where Democrats hoped to preserve social safety-net spending and money for economically stimulative programs. One of the biggest, and most contentious, provisions that made it out of the House was $10 billion in aid for states, to keep teachers on the payroll. As many as 300,000 state employees, many of them teachers, might lose their jobs in the next year due to the states’ fiscal crises.

Rep. Dave Obey (D-Mich.) included the $10 billion for teacher funding, and took some of the money to pay for it from Race to the Top, the Obama administration’s signature education initiative. For that reason, President Obama signaled he might veto the entire bill. Obey later said that the White House recommended that he pay for the education jobs funding by taking from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, benefits formerly known as food stamps.

One way or another, it does not matter now. CQ reports that the Senate is stripping the funding out, and will seek another vehicle for it. But it seems unlikely any new deficit spending will get past the Senate, meaning the House will need to find offsets or raise taxes. CQ writes:

The military needs Congress to authorize the funding for Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as possible. The current funding expires on Aug. 7.