Putting The Bush Budget In Perspective: An Examination Of The Budgetary Process

Abstract

President Bush created a stir this month with his fiscal year 2008 budget, which recommends increasing funding for the Pell Grant, the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG), and the National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) Grant programs by eliminating the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) and the Perkins Loan Program FCC, and by recalling Perkins Loan Reserves. Lenders and guarantors have also been called upon to bear an additional $19 billion in cuts to help support the grant increases. Given the excitement that the budget has caused, it is important to put the proposed budget in perspective by learning the budgeting process and understanding why this year’s budget process will be different than other budget processes in recent history.

Originally published in NASFAA’s Today’s News on 3/1/07