Ed Money Watch  A Blog from New America's Federal Education
Budget Project  < Back to the Education Policy Program  Obama
Budget Punts on Tough Choices for Pell Grants  Published:  April
10, 2012     Sure, the president doesn’t propose any eligibility
changes for Pell Grants or big cuts to other aid programs to
address the funding cliff, so it might appear to be a better
deal for students come 2015. But student aid advocates are
taking a big gamble because the appropriations spending caps in
place under the Budget Control Act require that any big
increases in appropriations spending on one program must be
offset by spending cuts to other programs (tax increases cannot
be counted as an offset). It should be noted that the
president’s budget would “turn off” the across-the-board
(sequestration) cuts pending for 2013 and cancel the lower
annual appropriations limits, both triggered by last year’s
supercommittee failure.  The president does not call for a $7
billion increase in overall appropriations spending eac