1. United States
2. Idaho
3. Letter

As your constituent, I am writing to urge you to reach out to the United States Department of Education/Office of Migrant Education (OME) to urge them to release federal funds that Congress appropriated in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 for the High School Equivalency Program (HEP)/College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) to ensure that these programs can effectively assist agricultural workers in pursuing their educational and career goals. This request is urgent as programs are scheduled to begin their next fiscal year on July 1, 2025. While Congress has appropriated $52.1 million for HEP/CAMP for FY 2025, the U.S. Department of Education has not released grant award notifications (GAN) and the new grant awards to the grantees. Delaying the new grants and continuation grants is very problematic. HEP/CAMP's fiscal year begins on July 1, 2025. If there is no funding available, then projects will be forced to lay off staff and make arrangements to wind down projects. In the event the continuation grant awards are eventually made, it will be difficult to resume running the project since staff will have been laid off an d secured new jobs. Therefore, we are asking you to reach out to the U.S. Department of Education to urge them to release the FY 2025 funds that Congress has appropriated fo r HEP/CAMP.