On the 50th anniversary of the Pell Grant program, the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee wrote its FY 2023 spending bill and included a $500 increase in the maximum Pell Grant award.  If enacted, this increase would bring the maximum grant award to $7,395 and continue the steady steps toward doubling the maximum to $13,000 by 2029. 

Overall, the House adopted a total spending level of $1.6 trillion for FY 2023, which is $132 billion more than last year. From that total, the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee was allocated a total of $224.4 billion, an increase of $27.4 billion to be spent across the three largest domestic agencies.  

The bill provides $86.7 billion for the Department of Education, an increase of $10.3 billion above the FY 2022 enacted level. Anchored by the $500 increase in the Pell Grant maximum, the bill also provides additional increases for the student aid programs:  

• The Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program received an increase of $25 million, bringing its total funding to $920 million
• Federal Work-Study received an increase of $34 million, bringing its total funding to $1.2 billion 
• The TRIO programs received an increase of $161 million, bringing its total funding to $1.3 billion 
• GEAR UP received an increase of $30 million, bringing its total funding to $408 million

Beyond student aid, the bill also includes increases for programs of interest to NAICU institutions, such as: 

• The Title III and V Institutional Aid programs received an increase of $225 million, bringing their total funding to $1.1 billion
• Teacher Quality Partnerships received an increase of $73 million, bringing the total funding to $132 million
• Child Care Access Means Parents in School received an increase of $30 million, bringing its total funding to $95 million

Additionally, the bill provides $225 million for New Research and Development Infrastructure Grants to four-year HBCUs, TCUs, or other MSIs to promote transformational investments in research infrastructure.  It also provides $520 million for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE).  That total includes $209 million in higher education community-based projects and $200 million to continue the Postsecondary Student Success Grants to support evidence-based activities to improve postsecondary retention and completion rates.

The full Committee on Appropriations will consider this bill next week, and the House expects to pass all 12 bills before the beginning of the fiscal year, which begins on October 1. The Senate has not released its plan for writing appropriations bills this year.