Call to Action: Contact your federal lawmakers directly as soon as possible to submit an earmark request for your institution. In addition, use our Action Campaign to ask for general support of federal programs that support community colleges and their students.

Fiscal Year 2025 Recap

Last month, Congress finalized their Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Appropriations work – not by passing a new, compromised funding bill, but by passing a Continuing Resolution (CR) that extended to September 30, 2025, the end of the fiscal year. This averted the risk of a government shutdown for the remainder of the fiscal year and set funding levels equal to FY 2024. Given that the House proposed drastic cuts last summer, and appropriators’ proposals were so far apart that the risk of a government shutdown was always looming, the CR was seen as positive outcome. However, this meant that any hopes for community project funding/congressionally directed spending (earmarks) in this fiscal year were gone[1]. Additionally, a CR does not include the same level of specificity and instructions for programmatic level funding as a full-year appropriations bill does. Because of this, ACCT is asking the Trump administration to follow FY 24 instructions to determine programmatic funding levels.

The President’s Budget Request

Typically, the President’s budget request is what kicks off an appropriations cycle. This request is usually sent to Congress towards the end of February or early March. On the years right after a presidential election, however, this time can be delayed when a new president is sworn into office, as at that point in the year they are in the process of staffing up their administration. This is the case this year, with President Trump’s budget request still pending. We expect the administration to send a “skinny budget” (a budget request outline only top-level funding asks for each Department and major agency) this month. A full budget request (including programmatic level funding requests and justifications) is expected some time in May. Based on the budget proposals from President Trump’s first term, and the heavy focus on downsizing federal expenditures in the first two months of his second term, we can expect the budget request to include drastic cuts or complete elimination to many programs that community colleges utilize to support students. Given this, advocacy focused on federal funding for higher education will be pivotal in ensuring that Congress continues investing in community colleges and our students.

FY 2026 in the House of Representatives

House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (OK-04) recently released guidance for the FY 26 member requests process. Like FY 24 and FY 25, community project funding (CPF, “earmarks”) will be limited to 15 submissions per member. In addition to that, only select subcommittees will accept earmarks requests. As was the case in the last two funding cycles, the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (LHHS) subcommittee will not accept earmarks. That being said, in FY 24, many community colleges were able to successfully secure funding through the other subcommittees. For example, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies (Ag subcommittee); and the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) subcommittee included a significant portion of community college projects.

The deadlines for Members of Congress to submit their requests to the Appropriations Committee start as early as May 2, 2025, for the Ag subcommittee and stretch into late May (May 23, 2025, for THUD and LHHS). However, constituent submission deadlines are likely to be in mid-April (as early as April 15). We urge all community colleges to get in touch with their federal lawmakers to ensure any earmark submissions are included in their priorities.

FY 2026 in the U.S. Senate

Last week, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (ME) published guidance for the Senate on the FY 2026 Appropriations Requests and Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS). The Senate guidance aligns with the House in both the overall funding limit (no more than 1% of discretionary spending) and transparency requirements. Unlike the House, the Senate will continue accepting CDS (“earmarks”) for most subcommittees, including the LHHS Subcommittee. The deadlines for Senators to submit their requests to the Committee on Appropriations are also in May (May 23, 2025, for LHHS bill), and we can expect constituent submission deadlines to also be sometime in April.

What’s Next?

As stated earlier, we are still waiting to see what the President’s budget request will look like; that information will help inform the President’s priorities for the next fiscal year. House and Senate majority leadership has shown great deference to the President in the 119th Congress; as such, the budget could provide a glimpse at what some of the original draft legislation might look like.

Member priority requests, and congressional hearings are the very early stages of the appropriations process. We are a long way from having final appropriations legislation – be it by September 30th or after. However, this is one of the most critical times for advocacy and communication with your federal elected officials, as inclusion in their requests is the first step needed to have a chance at securing federal funds via earmarks for your institutions. In addition to securing funds via earmarks, given the fiscally conservative environment in Congress, it is expected that securing additional investments for community colleges and their students will be an uphill battle, one which we must start today in order to prevent drastic cuts. To that end, we have prepared an action campaign to reach out to our lawmakers and ask them to support community colleges in the FY 2026 appropriations bills.

José Miranda is the Director of Government Relations at ACCT

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