Overall, TRIO programs would receive $828 million under the House bill, unchanged from current funding. The White House called for a cut of more than $400 million, with a goal of eventually terminating Talent Search and Upward Bound.

While TRIO advocates mounted their own campaign to protect the programs, a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., a Congressional Black Caucus member, actively sought a $100 million increase rather than a cut.

Elimination of Talent Search and Upward Bound “would not only deny thousands of students the necessary support in enrolling in college, it would widen the gap between low-income, first-generation students and their peers,� Payne says.

By protecting GEAR UP, the House would maintain funding of $303 million for this program that helps middle and high school students prepare for college.

Elsewhere, the House’s 2007 education bill has few increases. Support for historically Black colleges and universities would be frozen at $238 million. Hispanic-serving institutions and tribal colleges also would see their budgets frozen at $95 million and $23.5 million, respectively.

The bill now goes to the full House Appropriations Committee for action next week, a House aide says. GOP leaders hope to send a final bill to the White House before the start of the new fiscal year Oct. 1. In recent years, lawmakers have missed that deadline, relying on short-term stopgap measures until they could resolve differences.

Nassirian says he is “guardedly optimistic� that Congress ultimately will approve a 2007 budget that provides a Pell increase without cutting other programs. But the budget’s bottom line still falls short of expectations. “It’s a tough bill,� he says.

— By Charles Dervarics