As the December 20 expiration of the Continuing Resolution (CR) looms, Congressional leadership and the Administration have finally made progress in their lengthy negotiations on the final FY 2020 spending agreements to avoid a government shutdown before leaving town for the holidays.
 
Congress and the White House agreed to a bipartisan budget deal this summer, which set the topline spending levels for FY 2020 and FY 2021.  However, lengthy haggling over the allocation of funds among defense, nondefense, and border wall funding stalled final action on all 12 appropriations bills. But an allocation deal seems to have been struck on December 12 that will allow final spending decisions to be made before December 20.  The White House has been part of the negotiations and it appears the president will sign the final spending bills.
 
Student aid funding hangs in the balance with the House having approved significant increases for all student aid programs and the Senate drafting a bill with an increase only for the Pell Grant maximum, but with not cuts to the other programs. The higher education community has asked Congress to fund the programs as close to the House-approved spending levels as possible.  It is not clear yet what the final spending numbers for the student aid programs will be, but this week’s deal makes it possible for the programs to receive some increases.