On April 28, both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate voted and passed a short-term funding extension, which keeps the federal government operating for another week and delays the potential of a government shutdown. The short-term spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), is the third CR used in FY 2017, and extends the current fiscal deadline to Friday, May 5.
Recap and Next Week’s To-Do
Negotiations for a long-term agreement between both parties and the Administration originally fell short of the April 28 deadline, due to last-minute demands by President Trump, which included funding for the construction of the border wall and cost-sharing subsidies for low-income citizens under the Affordable Care Act. Those requests by the Administration have since been dropped, and negotiations to finalize a full spending agreement for FY17 is expected to continue immediately on Monday.
This agreement by Congress will be key in deciding the effectiveness of ESSA in the upcoming school year. NAfME continues to advocate Congress to complete a full appropriations process to ensure music education receives maximum benefit in ESSA’s first year of action.
Ronny Lau, Public Policy Advisor, April 28, 2017. © National Association for Music Education (NAfME.org)
