Perkins Deal Reached

Posted on September 24, 2015September 25, 2015

The House and Senate have introduced bipartisan legislation to extend the Perkins program, which is set to expire in less than one week.

On the House side, Reps. Mike Bishop (R-MI) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) introduced bi-partisan legislation extending the authorization of the Perkins Loan Program, which is similar to a measure the duo introduced in June t. The measure, HR 3594, Higher Education Extension Act of 2015, is expected to be considered and passed by the House next week.

Additionally, four Senate HELP Committee members introduced a bipartisan resolution today “expressing support for the continuation of the Federal Perkins Loan Program.” Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Rob Portman (R-OH), Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced a measure to express support to extend the Perkins program for this year. The introduction of the resolution signals broad support by the Senate to reauthorize the Perkins program for a year.

Perkins, the $1 billion campus-based loan program for exceptionally needy students, is just six days from expiring . While it has many backers in both chambers of Congress, most Republicans – including the House and Senate education committee chairmen – have shown no inclination to extend the program beyond Sept. 30.

The cost of the extension (approximately $250 million) will be paid for by limiting the grandfather clause, in that “grandfathered students” will only be able to take out Perkins loans through March 31, 2018 instead of throughout their entire academic career.

With the introduction of the pay-for and the bipartisan Senate resolution, the extending the program may move forward.

To read the House bill, click here.

To read the summary of the House bill, click here.

To read the bipartisan Senate resolution here.

Pope Week with China Too!

Posted on September 21, 2015September 23, 2015

Originally this week was scheduled to be a recess week to observe Yom Kippur, but Congress is back this week to welcome Pope Francis to town. Incidentally, the Pope’s visit to DC is just one of series of high profile visitors. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain were in town last week for a state visit (they went to Mt. Vernon and Georgetown -he’s an alum), and it garnered very little media attention. This week, however, the Pope will land Tuesday and take off Thursday from Joint Base Andrews and everyone is paying attention. President Obama and the First Lady will be on hand to welcome Pope Francis when he lands, which is big deal. Presidents and their spouses do not normally go to the airport to help welcome guests and it speaks volumes as to the importance of the Pope’s visit and the weight the Administration is giving that visit. When the Pope heads back to Andrews, he will pass China President Xi Jinping, who is coming to DC Thursday. The Chinese president lands in Washington DC for two days after spending time in Seattle and Tacoma earlier in the week.

Pope Francis

Residents of the DC-Maryland-Virginia area are girding their loins for the Pope’s visit this week. It’s expected to bring thousands of people to the area and cause major traffic issues. Roads are closed for the Pope’s welcome, travel to meetings and parade. In fact, the federal Office of Personnel Management is encouraging federal workers to telecommute for the entirety of the visit and treat it like three snow days.

The big agenda item for Congress is when the Pope addresses a joint session on Thursday morning. After the joint session, the Pope will address the crowd on the West Front of the Capitol, in what will be inauguration-like set up. The joint session could be a somewhat uncomfortable situation for Congressional Republicans since Pope Francis has delivered an encyclical calling for increased action against climate change, denounced the role of global capitalism in increasing poverty, and enthusiastically supported the new nuclear accord with Iran (which the House and Senate both worked on derailing last week). Now the Pope, whom American Catholics overwhelmingly support, arrives as Republicans wrestle with their opposition to these issues and with perceptions of intolerance.

One sliver lining is that Republicans are hoping the visit will help emphasize recent antiabortion efforts in the House. For over ten hours last week, the House debated a two bills designed to curtail abortions after 20 weeks and end Planned Parenthood’s access to federal funds for one year. The measures passed largely by party lines. The Senate will begin procedural motions to consider the legislation this week. The two bills were:

The elephant in the room is a concern on optics of a potential government shutdown on October 1st, just days after the Pope will likely deliver a message of tolerance, charity and love. A short-term continuing resolution is looking increasingly unlikely. The Planned Parenthood funding controversy has put the Administration and Congress at odds as the White House will veto any bill that defunds the group and Congressional Republicans do not have the votes to override a veto. Additionally, the dispute between the political parties over military and domestic funding has so far been impossible to negotiate. Democrats want both military and domestic spending increased while Republicans have proposed an increase for the military but a reduction in domestic programs…Stay Tuned.

The Washington Post has all things Pope Francis related.

Politico has a long piece on the Pope and his politics.

President Xi

As the Pope leaves, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in town for several days in Washington, DC in what could be a somewhat tense meeting. Xi will be in the United States all week, with a stop first in Seattle on Tuesday and Wednesday where he will visit Boeing and Microsoft company facilities. Xi will travel to Washington on Thursday for an official state visit and meeting with President Barack Obama on Friday. The two are expected to discuss a wide range of issues, including cyber attacks and climate change, and could cover economic issues like biotechnology approvals and bilateral investment treaty negotiations.

The broad goal for China is to improve relations with the United States, while asserting the nation’s role as a superpower. It’s a complicated visit in the midst of recent turmoil in Chinese markets and economy. China’s economy has slowed more abruptly than policy makers have appeared ready for, alarming investors around the world. The government overestimated its ability to keep stock prices aloft, spending billions to bolster the Chinese markets.

Top on the agenda for the Administration are issues related to cyber security to stem the tide of private sector trade-secrets and intellectual-property thefts linked to China’s government and the People’s Liberation Army and the South China Sea issue.

Administration officials began anonymously threatening targeted sanctions against offending Chinese businesses in advance of the summit. While Chinese attacks on private businesses have gone down in recent days, it’s unclear if this reduction is a cease-fire or an effort to make nice before the leaders meet. In addition, US officials are hoping to ink a first-of-its-kind cyber arms deal during Xi’s visit – essentially an agreement that neither side would move first to destroy the other’s critical infrastructure by cyber means, according to a New York Times story. If completed, the deal would square with a series of peacetime cyber norms the US has been pushing at the United Nations and elsewhere. The China deal would lend significant credibility to the US’s larger diplomatic mission in cyberspace, but it would do little to address genuine points of cyber conflict between the nations.

The US is worried about freedom of navigation in one of the busiest commercial waterways in the world, the South China Sea, and has told China to stop building artificial islands and to halt construction of military facilities on those islands. China considers itself to have sovereign rights over about 80 percent of the South China Sea. It is unlikely that the two sides will bridge their differences, but they may agree to try to manage them.

The meeting is an important first between the two leaders. It should be noted, however, that Xi is incredibly popular in China and expected to easily serve the next seven years, while Obama has 16 months left. It is unknown how much the two leaders can agree on at this meeting.

The New York Times has Xi’s full schedule and agenda.

Lighter Reading

Here’s a Politico Article about Queen Letizia and Michelle Obama’s “fashion off” for the state visit, which includes a good background on why King Felipe is now king (and why is father abdicated).

What We’re Reading This Week, September 14-18

Posted on September 17, 2015September 17, 2015

Here’s a selection of articles that the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

Chicago, Illinois. In the waiting room of the Union Station (LOC) — Union Station, Chicago, IL (LOC)

The Science Teacher -A long form read on house Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX), his interests, and how the House Science Committee functions. Read it at National Journal.

Bill$ – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is trying to downplay expectations on a recently revealed Continuing Resolution discussion. Right now, the expectation is that the CR will fund the government sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which will give House and Senate Leadership time to discuss a larger full-funding measure with higher budget caps. Read more at The Hill.

Join Us! – A new Administration initiative is encouraging legal immigrants to become American citizens. This is one of five ambitious Executive Orders announced in the last few weeks regarding immigration. Read more at the New York Times.

The Debate – The Republican presidential candidates met again on Wednesday for a debate with CNN. It was three hours of sparing, zingers, specifics, facts and some exaggerations. Long and short, Carly won, easily. Here are some takeaways from Politico, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Roll Call.

Fissions and Fractures – The House Freedom Caucus is down a member because of their tactics over…Planned Parenthood. Rep. Mike McClintock (R-CA) is leaving because he says that the methods used by the caucus are doing the opposite of helping the Freedom Caucus set the agenda, rather, they are driving the Republicans as a whole to do Nancy Pelosi’s bidding. Read more a Roll Call.

Senate Says No – Meanwhile, the Senate Leadership, which is Republican, has said that Planned Parenthood should be an issue for the 2016 presidential race and that funding or defunding the organization is not going to be the reason Congress fails to fund the government. Read more at Roll Call. But! The Senate will vote on the funding. Read more at Politico.

Vetting the Vetters – Two controversial picks for high-level positions within the higher education community have put a leading search firm under scrutiny for how their picks are being found, selected and reviewed. Read more at Inside Higher Education.

Clocks – A 14 year old in Irving, TX was suspended for three days and nearly arrested for bringing clock he made to school. Ahmed Mohamed was denied his rights (over three hours of being held the minor was denied the ability to call his parents despite repeated requests) and the school and Irving police force are maintaining they did what they needed to and did not handcuff, deny him his rights, and suspend Ahmed for brining a clock to school because he’s Muslim. Read more at the New York Times. #istandwithahmed

College Scorecard Back in Spotlight

Posted on September 14, 2015September 14, 2015

Over the weekend, the Obama Administration had two major announcements for higher ed, first the new College Scorecard and the inclusion of Prior Prior Year for Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

College Scorecard

The Administration launched their new College Scorecard, which rather than rank colleges as previously attempted, incorporates numbers new data points on colleges going back for several years so that individuals can make personal decisions as to a college’s value. It is a scaled back attempt at what the Administration has announced previously. Information published includes annual cost, average graduation rate, median salary after attending, average financial aid and debt, as well as demographic breakdown of the school and average SAT and ACT scores.

The new College Scorecard data does not rank colleges, but shows the share of a college’s former students who make some progress in paying down their federal loans within the first three years after leaving college. Additionally, the Scorecard provides the first comprehensive look at how much students, who receive federal loans and Pell Grants end up earning after they leave a specific college, both in the short term and long term, and if that is above or below the earning potential with simply a high school education. At present, the Scorecard includes the federal graduation rate, which only captures first-time, full-time students. The Administration has publicly committed to include a dedicated link to Student Achievement Measure (SAM) data on the Scorecard as soon as practicable. The Administration’s incorporation of the SAM, which is a long-term effort of APLU and the UW participates in SAM, opens the metrics up to tracking student movement across postsecondary institutions to provide a more complete picture of undergraduate student progress and completion within the higher education system. SAM is an alternative to the federal graduation rate, which is limited to tracking the completion of first-time, full-time students at one institution.

One criticism at the new system is that the government’s new earnings data reflects only the achievements of students who received federal financial aid, which could significantly skew the data and either understate possibly overstate the actual median earnings of a college’s former students.

Nationally, the federal student loan repayment rates underscore that hundreds of colleges are producing large numbers of graduates (as well as dropouts) who are not technically in default on their loans but are nonetheless not making any progress in repaying their debt. At present, the government only holds colleges responsible only when their former students get so far behind on their loans that they default on their loan debt. The new data also shows, according to the White House, that at 53 percent of all institutions of higher education, fewer than half of former students are earning more than the typical high school graduate.

Prior-Prior Year

Additionally, the Administration announced that students applying for federal financial aid can do so three months earlier next year. Beginning October 2016, students will be allowed to use prior-prior year tax data to determine financial contribution and eligibility. Right now, students have to wait until after their parents file their current year tax returns. The move will allow students to use tax information from two years earlier that is received electronically through the IRS rather than waiting until after the new year and the current year’s tax calculation.

Allowing millions of students to apply for federal financial aid three months earlier using prior-prior year tax data will cost about $400 million in the first year due to an expected additional 50,000 students getting federal aid and enrolling in college.

Such a policy change has broad support in Congress, but Republicans have also expressed concern over the potential cost. Additionally, Senate HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) has expressed support for prior-prior year, but has stated it needs to originate from the higher education reauthorization and not an administrative move.

The College Scorecard is here.

Read the Obama Weekly Address on the College Scorecard here.

APLU”s statment on linking the Scorecard to the SAM data is here.

APLU’s more general statement on the Scorecard here.

What We’re Reading This Week, September 8-11

Posted on September 11, 2015

Happy (almost) Fall!! Congress is back in session and here are a selection of articles the Federal Relations team is enjoying this week.

A worker stands at Ground Zero Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2001, in New York City. Photo by Paul Morse, Courtesy of the George W. Bush Presidential Library.

Exit Stage Right? – House Speaker John Boehner has not had an easy tenure as leader of the House Republican Caucus. During histime, he’s seen the rise of the Tea Party and Libertarians as well as more and more members of his caucus willing to openly challenging him on votes and for his Speaker position. As he looks towards what will be a hellish fall (a fight to defund Planned Parenthood, a potential government shutdown, the deadline to raise the federal debt ceiling or risk default, a highly contentious fight over highway spending to extend the highway trust fund, and a vote to oust him as Speaker is also expected), his closest allies are wondering if Boehner will run for Speaker or Congress again. Read more at Politico.

60% Chance – Congress has routinely fought about raising the debt ceiling in recent years. These fights have had significant political consequences for the Republican party because of shutdowns. As Congress, again, has to raise the debt ceiling, political forecasters are giving odds of 60 percent that the federal government shuts down over the debt ceiling…again. Read more at Forbes. Meanwhile, those 60 percent odds might be a little low. Read more from The Washington Post.

Planned Parenthood v. Debt Ceiling – Congressional leadership and the American people don’t want a government shutdown but the other looming political issue is the Republican outcry to defund Planned Parenthood, an effort currently being lead by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). While Planned Parenthood is not expected to lose all of its federal funding, how the House and Senate proceed on the issue, and a vote on de-funding the organization, is unclear. Further, it sets up a show down between defunding Planned Parenthood and raising the debt ceiling. Read more at Politico.

The POPE Is Coming – Pope Francis is scheduled to stop in DC at the end of the month to meet with Obama, hold a massive public mass where he will canonize a new saint, tour Catholic Charities, and address Congress. In a town that’s used to famous people living here and dropping by, preparations for the Pope have everyone atwitter. DC knows motorcades, but we’re not quite adept at Pope-mobiles…yet. It’s been treated as an inauguration and snow day all rolled in one. Read more at Roll Call. Or read more at the Washington Post. While the Pope is here, he will canonize 18th-century Spanish missionary, Junipero Serra, who worked in colonial California around modern day Monterey. Serra is not without his critics. Read more at the Washington Post.

Remembering September 11th on the 14th anniversary. Yesterday, a rainbow was seen over Manhattan, which looked like it originated from the World Trade Center. See the pictures at Buzzed.