Tell Congress to Restore Perkins Funding

Yesterday, the Senate approved a budget agreement, known as the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, by a vote of 64-36. The budget deal will replace a total of $63 billion of sequester cuts over two years. For FY 2014, this will effectively restore an estimated 87 percent of the cuts that were put into place through sequestration last year.

Congress must now begin the task of setting funding levels for individual programs like Perkins before the current funding bill expires on January 15. It will be up to appropriators in Congress to determine which individual programs get funding restored within the overall total increase available. The Bipartisan Budget Act has helped to alleviate some of the harmful sequester cuts, but there is still more work to be done to ensure that Congress acts to restore funding for CTE specifically. Sequestration resulted in a $58 million cut in the federal support for Perkins in the 2013-14 school year, and our goal is to get those cuts restored!

Contact your Members of Congress and tell them to work with the appropriations committees to support an FY 2014 funding bill that restores Perkins funding to $1.1 billion, equivalent to the pre-sequestration level. Tell them that it is time to make investing in CTE a top priority!

Take Action

• Contact your Members of Congress using our CTE Action Center or by phone through the Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121.
• Tell them that restoring Perkins CTE funding is a priority to your community and that Perkins should be restored to the pre-sequestration level of $1.1 billion in the final FY 2014 appropriations bill.
• Ask them to work with congressional appropriators to support this FY 2014 funding level for CTE!