the Department of War Education Activity (DOWEA) announced that it had awarded nine multi-year World Language Advancement and Readiness Grants (WLARA) for the FY2026 grant cycle. Totaling $15 million, these grants range between $500,000 and $2 million each, and go to support establishing or expanding programs in Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Korean and German.

On September 24th, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sent a legislative request asking Congress to rescind $810 million in federally appropriated FY26 funds, including approximately $70 million of the funding that was supposed to flow to Title VI domestic programs. As a result of this request, it is unclear if this year’s Title VI applicants will receive any funding at all as their application awards appear to have been paused.

Last week, the House of Representatives voted to approve the FY27 National Security-State Appropriations bill. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Exchange, , which supports multiple international exchange and scholarship programs, sustained a $20 million cut, leaving it with $647 million. Rep. Boebert (R-CO) introduced an amendment that would have eliminated all $287 million that this bill provided to the Fulbright Program. JNCL worked with allies to whip opposition. The

the House Appropriations Committee approved the FY27 Department of Defense Appropriations bill, which includes $20 million for the World Language Advancement and Readiness (WLARA) grants program. If enacted, this would represent a $5 million increase over last year for WLARA and would be the largest amount of funding that WLARA has received.

Early Wednesday morning, the House Appropriations Committee approved, on a party-line vote, the House’s version of the FY27 Labor HHS Education spending bill, which proposes to cut 10% of the Department of Education’s funding and eliminate key language education programs. Specifically, the bill would eliminate all funding for Title II-A (educator professional development) program, Title III (English Language Acquisition) program, HEA Title VI.