The Senate Appropriations Committee voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve a spending bill that rejects President Trump’s proposed cuts to education funding for fiscal year 2018 and, for now at least, derails the administration’s goal of directing federal dollars toward promoting and expanding school choice and private school vouchers.
The 29 to 2 vote on the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Bill further illustrates the president’s difficulty in moving his education agenda through Congress despite Republican control of the House and Senate.
Earlier this year, the president had proposed a budget for the Education Department that represented a nearly 14 percent cut, or $9.2 billion, in spending, some of it for programs popular with Republicans. Members of the Senate Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations Subcommittee dismissed that request Wednesday and instead voted unanimously to increase overall spending for the department by $29 million.
