By Laura Walling, Vice President of Government Affairs, Goodwill Industries International
The administration released its FY24 budget proposal with additional details to be announced next week. According to the White House, the budget is a blueprint for the agenda President Biden laid out in the State of the Union: continuing to grow the economy by investing in America, lowering costs for families, protecting and strengthening Medicare and Social Security, and reducing the deficit by nearly $3 trillion over the next ten years.
The proposal contains several increases to programs of importance to Goodwill and the people we serve. However, the final funding levels may be drastically different. The proposal includes a 5.5% overall increase for discretionary spending, a contrast to the new House Republican majority’s goal of reducing overall discretionary spending by 9%. The president’s proposal is just a proposal and Congress can ignore it as they create their spending bills with the goal of getting something passed before October 1.
Below is a summary of the key workforce and postsecondary education components in the budget request in addition to wholistic support programs that help people focus on their careers.
Workforce Training and Pathways to Good Jobs: The budget invests in effective, evidence-based training models to ensure all workers have the skills they need to obtain high-quality jobs. The budget provides $200 million to launch the “Sectoral Employment through Career Training for Occupational Readiness” program, which will scale evidence-based sector partnerships to empower employers in growing industries to design and implement high-quality training. The budget requests $335 million to expand Registered Apprenticeships while increasing apprentices from historically underrepresented groups. The proposal invests $100 million in community colleges to build capacity to work with the public workforce development system and employers to deliver high-quality training for in-demand jobs. The budget invests in strategic planning, partnership development and training and reemployment activities for displaced workers, including resources to address changes in the energy economy.
Employment protections for military spouses: The budget expands anti-discrimination and reemployment protections to spouses of all active-duty and reserve members.
Equal opportunity and nondiscrimination: The budget invests in the Civil Rights Center to expand its enforcement work; the Women’s Bureau to support its efforts to remedy the negative impact of the pandemic on women and help marginalized women understand and access their employment rights; the Secretary’s policy office to support the department’s agencies in removing barriers for members of underserved communities in accessing its programs; invests resources in the Good Jobs Initiative to further embed equity in all departmental programs and promote good jobs principles; and the Office of Disability Employment Policy to fund Equitable Transition Model programs that will develop scalable strategies to enable low-income youth with disabilities to transition to employment.
Paid Leave: The Budget provides up to 12 weeks of leave to allow eligible workers to take time off to care for and bond with a new child; care for a seriously ill loved one; heal from their own serious illness; address circumstances arising from a loved one’s military deployment; or find safety from domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. The President also calls on Congress to require employers to provide seven job-protected paid sick days each year to all workers.
Student Pathways to College and a Career: The budget includes $1.47 billion for Career and Technical Education state grants, an increase of $43 million, and a $200 million investment to re-design our high schools to build career and college pathways and align with our post-secondary system.
Improves College Affordability and Expands Free Community College: The Budget proposes to increase the maximum Pell Grant by $500 and lays out a path to double the award by 2029. The Budget expands free community college, and provides funding for two years of subsidized tuition for students from families earning less than $125,000 enrolled in a participating Historically Black College or University, Tribally-Controlled College or University, or Minority-Serving Institution.
Taxes: The proposal call for the restoration of the full Child Tax Credit, expanding the credit from $2,000 per child to $3,000 per child for children six years old and above, and to $3,600 per child for children under six. The Budget makes the credit permanent and fully refundable. Biden calls on the Congress to make the Earned Income Tax Credit expansion for childless workers permanent.
Health Care: The Budget invests $150 billion over 10 years to improve and expand Medicaid home and community-based services, such as personal care services, which would allow seniors and individuals with disabilities to remain in their homes and improve the quality of jobs for home care workers. To bolster the health care workforce, the Budget provides a total of $966 million in 2024 to expand the National Health Service Corps, which provides loan repayment and scholarships to health care professionals in exchange for practicing in underserved areas, and a total of $350 million to expand programs that train and support the nursing workforce.
Early Childcare and Learning: The proposal enables states to increase childcare options for more than 16 million young children and lowers costs. The budget funds a Federal-State partnership that provides high-quality, universal, free preschool.
Housing and Homeownership: The budget includes $59 billion in funding and tax incentives aimed at increasing the affordable housing supply. The Budget includes $10 billion to incentivize State, local, and regional jurisdictions to remove barriers to affordable housing developments, such as restrictive zoning. The Budget expands access to affordable rent through the Housing Choice Voucher program. The Budget includes funding to support two populations that are particularly vulnerable to homelessness—guaranteed assistance for all 20,000 youth who age out of foster care annually and an incremental expansion to cover the 450,000 extremely low-income veteran families nationwide.
Home Energy and Water Costs: The Budget provides $4.1 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program allow States the option to use a portion of their funds to provide water bill assistance to low-income households.
Increases Food Security: The Budget provides over $15 billion to allow more States and schools to participate in the Community Eligibility Program. The Budget includes $6.3 billion to support the 6.5 million individuals expected to participate in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.
Innovation and Research: The Budget provides almost $21 billion for CHIPS and Science Act-authorized activities. This includes $300 million for NSF’s Regional Innovation Engines program to galvanize use-inspired research, technology translation, and workforce development.
Clean Energy Infrastructure: The Budget invests $4.5 billion in clean energy, bringing jobs to rural communities and cities. The Budget supports clean energy workforce development and sustainable infrastructure projects across the country, including $1.8 billion to weatherize and retrofit low-income Americans’ homes, and $83 million to electrify Tribal homes and transition Tribal Colleges and universities to renewable energy.
Crime Prevention: The Budget continues to fund the President’s comprehensive Safer America Plan, including funding to put 100,000 additional police officers on our streets for accountable, community-oriented policing; $19.4 billion over 10 years for crime prevention strategies; and $5 billion over 10 years for community violence interventions.
We’ll continue to keep advocates informed of new developments and opportunities where your voice can help us protect critical programs of interest to local Goodwill organizations and the individuals they serve, as we go through the budget and appropriations process.
