IV

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 136

Expressing the sense of the Congress relating to the timely distribution

of payments to local educational agencies under the Impact Aid program.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JUNE 17, 1999

Ms. WOOLSEY submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was

referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce

CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Congress relating to the timely

distribution of payments to local educational agencies

under the Impact Aid program.

Whereas there are over 1,800 local educational agencies located throughout the Nation enrolling over 17,000,000

children that are impacted by a Federal presence and to

varying degrees depend on Federal funds allocated under

the authority of the Impact Aid program (title VIII of

the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965;

20 U.S.C. 7701 et seq.);

Whereas Congress recognized the Federal obligation that this

Nation has to local educational agencies impacted by a

Federal presence through the passage and enactment of
2

•HCON 136 IH

the Impact Aid program in 1950 (Public Law 874, 81st

Congress);

Whereas Congress has continued to show its support for the

program through the subsequent reauthorizations that

have maintained and improved the program over the past

47 years;

Whereas the timely receipt of payments under the Impact Aid

program is important to these local educational agencies

allowing such agencies to pay for school supplies, including text books, general upkeep (including transportation

costs), staff salaries, and other operation and maintenance expenses normally paid for from locally derived

revenue;

Whereas because the Impact Aid program is the only major

Federal education program that is not forward funded,

the receipt of these dollars as soon as possible after the

passage of the Departments of Labor, Health and

Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies

Appropriations Act must be of the highest priority of the

Department of Education;

Whereas the Department of Education has not yet distributed over $145,000,000 of Impact Aid funds appropriated for fiscal years prior to fiscal year 1997 and still

has over $250,000,000 or 34 percent of the money appropriated for fiscal year 1997 to distribute;

Whereas many federally impacted local educational agencies

have communicated their need for these dollars to both

the Department of Education and to the Congress as

their 1996–97 school fiscal year is nearly 75 percent

complete;
3

•HCON 136 IH

Whereas local educational agencies not only have not received

final payments for fiscal years 1995, 1996, and 1997,

but such agencies cannot with any certainty prepare their

school budgets for the 1997–98 school year making it

very difficult to plan and to finalize contracts;

Whereas it is unfair to the communities and students served

by a federally connected local educational agency to be

faced with the uncertainty of when they will receive their

Impact Aid funds and it places an additional burden on

local taxpayers, school board members, and school officials of these communities to plan, prepare, and implement an operating budget for each school year; and

Whereas the Congress and the Department of Education

should make every effort possible to ensure that federally

connected school districts receive their payments under

the Impact Aid program in a reasonable amount of time

following the passage and enactment of the Departments

of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education,

and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for each fiscal

year and that the continued disruption and delay of Impact Aid payments makes it difficult for a federally impacted local educational agency to carry out its mission

of educating children: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that—

3 (1) the Impact Aid program (title VIII of the

4 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965;

5 20 U.S.C. 7701 et seq.) should be funded at an ap6 propriate level in order to allow funds under such
4

•HCON 136 IH

1 program to be made available on a forward funded

2 basis as is currently required by law; and

3 (2) upon completion of the Departments of

4 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education,

5 and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for each

6 fiscal year, the Secretary of Education should dis7 tribute payments under the Impact Aid program to

8 eligible local educational agencies not later than 45

9 days after the date of enactment of each such Act,

10 if other congressional action has not caused a delay

11 and State education agencies have supplied all the

12 necessary information to the Department of Edu13 cation for such distribution of payments.

Æ