Last week, Congress passed the 2004 fiscal-year budget, which awards funding to several research facilities and boosts targeted student aid, but maintains the same maximum Pell grant amount.

The budget for the fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, was decided nearly four months late due to a holdup because of disagreements within the Senate. Both Republicans and Democrats were displeased by decisions made between Congressional leaders and the White House about television-station ownership, overtime-pay regulations, and food-labeling rules in the wake of “mad cow” disease. The office of Senator Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, did not return phone calls Friday.

The $820 billion spending plan includes the budgets of seven government agencies and was approved in Senate by a vote of 65 to 28. The budget includes funding of $27.982 billion for the National Institute of Health and $5.6 billion for the National Science Foundation, an increase of 3.7 percent and 6 percent this year, respectively.

The budget also boosts funding for programs for disadvantaged students. The legislation increased federal spending on the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant Program by $10 million, pushing total funding up to $775 million, TRIO programs by $5 million, raising total funding to $837.5 million, and Gear Up by $5 million, which prepares middle-school students from low-income households for college, raising total funding to $300 million.

The package also includes provisions to fund programs at historically black institutions and universities with high Hispanic enrollment by nearly $10 million. The institutions receive $277.5 million, an increase of 3 percent, and $94.5 million, an increase of nearly 2 percent, respectively.

But the legislation does not increase the maximum Pell grant level from $4,050 for the second consecutive year.

Also for the second consecutive year, overall spending within the plan dipped from 0.65 percent to 0.59 percent this year, to coincide with levels supported by President Bush.

The budget prohibits the U.S. Education Department from changing the student-aid eligibility formula. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, budget officials at the department estimated the eligibility of 84,000 students to Pell grants would be cut in the 2004-’05 academic year if the change had gone into effect.

Sang Han, assistant director for federal relations and higher education at the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, said NASULGC’s top priority is lobbying for Pell grants. Han said the budget’s maximum Pell-grant level has been stagnant for the last two years, and in the 2002 budget, Congress only increased the grant by $50, from $4,000 to $4,050.

NASULGC will most likely lobby to raise the maximum Pell-grant amount to $4,500 next year, Han said.

“The Pell-grant program is the foundation of what the federal government does for students; it’s the basic foundation upon which everything else is built,” he said. “Without adequate levels of support for Pell grants, everything else, unfortunately, is a secondary building block.”

Han said the Pell-grant plateau had many implications on higher-education students.

“For some people, it means additional student loans; for some people, it means they have to work more because they can’t take out any more student loans, and some people will be forced to drop out,” he said. “Or for those who have not entered college yet, it means some people can’t go to college at all. I think people are glad with the increases, but colleges across the country will say that Pell grants are the foundation of student aid.”

Cliff Conrad, professor of higher education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in increasing some student aid while maintaining the maximum Pell-grant level, Congress is sending mixed messages about higher education.

“My sense was that congress is being much more mindful at targeting aid to disadvantaged students, and I’m very encouraged by that,” he said. “But there is something inconsistent — at the same time, they awarded much more targeted funding to students, but they failed to raise the basic Pell grant.”

Conrad believes Congress’ budget is taking a positive step to enhance the diversity of higher education.

“There no longer seems to be widespread banality of indifference, to various acute needs of disadvantaged students,” he said. “I’d say this was a Republican victory.”