This week, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued budget guidance to all agency and department heads the the Fiscal Year 2015 Budgets submissions to OMB. In short, the overall submission should be at least 5% less but should aim for a 10% cut to the net discretionary total provided for to each agency for 2015 in the 2014 Budget.
Author: Sarah Castro
Reviewed 9/22
Furlough Friday courtesy of the Sequester
Today is the largest non-weather-related partial government shutdown in recent history thanks the Sequester. Around 115,000 people, which is approximately 5 percent of the federal workforce, will stay home thanks to Sequester mandated furloughs. That includes nearly all of the workers at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as well as some staffers for the Departments of Labor and Interior, who will get an unpaid day off for their Memorial Day weekend.
Across the country, mandated furloughs will increasingly empty agencies throughout the summer. The Pentagon will begin furloughs of 650,000 civilian workers on July 8; defense workers will get a five-day, unpaid holiday around Independence Day. HUD has six more furlough days scheduled for this summer. The IRS has scheduled four furlough days throughout August.
House Passes HR 1911
The House just approved the bill HR 1911, the Smarter Solutions for Students Act. The bill passed by a vote of 221 to 198 — largely by party lines: 8 Republicans voted against the bill while 4 Democrats supported it.
Before the vote, several higher education associations agreed to be listed as supporters of the legislation, including Association of American Universities (AAU), American Council on Education (ACE), Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), and National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA).
After the vote, the House adjourned for the week and will reconvene the first week in June.
The NASFAA issued this statement after the bill’s passage.
Veto threat to HR 1911, Smarter Solutions for Students Act
As we have previously posted, the House is slated to consider HR 1911, the Smarter Solutions for Students Act on Thursday of this week or tomorrow. Yesterday, Education Secretary Duncan all but endorsed the legislation. While the House Rules Committee has yet to meet and determine how to proceed and what amendments will be made in order on the legislation for consideration by the full House, the White House has just announced in a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) that the President veto the legislation as it currently stands.
Secretary Duncan advocates long-term student interest rate solution
Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, testified before the House Committee on Education and Workforce today. During the hearing, House Chairman Klein specifically asked Secretary Duncan to clarify the Administration’s position on the student loan issue. The Republican attempted to elicit an endorsement from Duncan of their bill, HR 1911, the Smarter Solutions for Students Act, which is founded largely on a market-based rate proposal included in the president’s fiscal 2014 budget request. While Duncan stopped short of explicit endorsement, he in his response Duncan dismissed the the Senate Democrats’ short-term fix (S 953) to simply extend the current 3.4 percent interest rate. With a strongly worded response, Duncan advocated for a long-term, budget-neutral fix for student loans rather than a short-term fix.
“We are very interested in a long-term solution,” Duncan said. “The idea of coming back every two years to try and fix something, with all the real challenges we face, and the fact that we can’t take this off the table… I just don’t understand it. I look forward to working with you and others to find some common ground.”
Duncan’s response to Klein here.
HR 1911 is expected to be considered by the full House this Thursday.