Today's Update

Senators Propose Major Spending Cuts in Education and Science

Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ben Nelsen (D-NE), known to be moderate Senators in their respective parties have proposed major spending cuts for science and education in the stimulus bill being debated in the Senate. In all cases the cuts are substantive but there are agencies that might lose all of their proposed increased funding in a final stimulus bill.

The agencies and programs that did not lose their entire proposed funding include:

The Agencies that lost their entire proposed stimulus funding are:

So far $13,869,000,000 have been proposed for Pell Grants but cutting this number is up for discussion.

Both Senators Collins and Nelsen recently met with President Obama to discuss the stimulus bill. After the meeting Senator Nelsen stated:

We had a very good and positive exchange about ways to improve the plan and I look forward to further discussions with the White House and my colleagues as we work to cut out spending that doesn't deal with the immediate economic troubles we face.

The debate over the stimulus bill will continue with the proposed spending numbers continuing to change. Education and science spending do not appear to be immune from any proposed spending decreases.