The House of Representatives passed fiscal year 2020 spending legislation Wednesday that boosts the size of the Pell Grant and directs billions in new funding to scientific research.
The $982.8 billion "minibus" spending bill would increase the maximum Pell Grant by $150 to $6,345 and would allocate $1 billion for the federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant.
The legislation would also add another $304 million in new funding for Federal Work-Study for a total of $1.4 billion in FY 2020.
The bill would allocate $41.1 billion for the National Institutes of Health, the biggest federal backer of university-based research. That's $2 billion above current spending levels.
The spending bill is the first passed by the House since Democrats took back the chamber in November. Like those passed in two previous spending cycles, lawmakers largely ignored drastic cuts requested by the White House in its budget proposal.
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