What Is Congress Up To? Spoiler alert — not a lot

By Tara Thomas

As the November 5 general election nears, the days that Congress will be in session are waning. They have a few items on their to-do list, but top of that list is Congress’s only annual responsibility: funding the government.

Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) began on October 1, 2024. On Wednesday night, September 25, Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government at current levels until December 20. Both the House and Senate are now in recess and back in their districts/states until after the election. How FY25 appropriations pan out in the lame duck Congress (whether they pass full appropriations or kick the bill to the 119th Congress with another CR) will largely depend on what happens in the election. If the lame duck decides to finish FY25, it will have a significant challenge ahead finding compromise between the two very different proposals.

Key context for FY25 spending is the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) – a spending deal passed in 2023 that placed spending caps on FY24 and FY25 in exchange for suspending the debt ceiling. Disagreement among party leadership on what FRA limits are for FY25 has led to significant deviations in the House and Senate FY25 proposals.

The House FY25 proposal for the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education (LHHS) spending bill represents about a 14% cut to the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Most notably, the bill cuts Title I by 25% ($4.7 billion) and eliminates Title II along with many other programs. Inversely, the program includes small increases for other K12 programs, like IDEA, Impact Aid, and REAP. On the other side of the Hill, the Senate’s LHHS proposal increased funding for ED by $1 billion, including significant increases for Title I (+$280 million) and IDEA (+$295 million). These proposals have only made it out of committee – neither have been brought to the House or Senate floor. In addition to appropriations, there has been recent Congressional action on student privacy and online safety. In July, the Senate passed the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA) which included two key bills: 1) Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) 2.0, which AASA has long been supportive of. The bill bans online companies from collecting personal information from users under 17 years old without their consent, bans targeted advertising to children and teens, and creates an eraser button for parents and kids to eliminate personal information online. And 2) the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which provides children and parents with the tools, safeguards, and transparency to protect against online harms. It establishes a duty of care for online platforms and requires them to activate the most protective settings for kids by default, providing minors with options to protect their information, disable addictive product features and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations. While the overall bill is positive, AASA has concerns about some language in KOSA that could unintentionally disrupt schools’ ability to use educational technology. The AASA Advocacy team is now working to ensure the House will include our recommended changes for KOSA if they decide to bring the bill to the floor. It is unclear if the House will be able to move these bills in the few legislative days they have left. ■

Tara Thomas is the Government Affairs Manager for AASA, the School Superintendents Association.

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