Senate Finance Passes Tax Extenders

Posted on July 21, 2015

The Senate Finance Committee marked up and passed a tax extenders package today by a vote of 23-3. The bill , among many other proposed tax breaks, would extend the teacher tax credit, the above the line deduction for qualified tuition and expenses, and the research tax deduction all through the end of 2016. A number of education-related amendments have been filed in advance of the markup. One, from Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), would extend the teacher tax credit to qualifying homeschool families. Another would repeal the tax imposed on student loans forgiven due to repayment under the income-based repayment program. Neither of these amendments passed.

While this measure passed the Senate Finance Committee fairly easily, its path forward remains unclear.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Paul Ryan has stated that his committee will take up tax extenders in the Fall. Chairman Ryan has been adamant about addressing the shortfalls prior to December to ensure certainty for business and taxpayers.

Read a summary of the Senate package here.

Senate Hearing on HEA

Posted on July 20, 2015

The Senate will be holding a hearing on the HEA this Wednesday entitled Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act: Exploring Barriers and Opportunities within Innovation. The hearing will be held at 10 am on Wednesday, July 22.

Watch the hearing here.

What We’re Reading This Week, July 13-17

Posted on July 17, 2015July 17, 2015

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations staff are enjoying this week.

The BIG One – The Cascadia Subduction zone has experienced a tremendous earthquake approximately every 245 years. It’s been 315 since the last major movement…we’re long over due. Scientists at UW and OSU are working to determine when, how and what the impacts will be (preview: really, really bad). It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. Read more at the New Yorker.

Toot, Toot – UW has a superlative freshman class this year. Read more in the Seattle Times.

Partner Up – The best partner for the next President: Research Universities. Read more at Time.

NO!!! – In the massive cuts that have happened to a number of agencies, one NIH agency, AHRQ, which despite NIH having an overall increase was cut, has its supporters militantly defending the threatened health research agency. Read more at Science Magazine.

Splits – Despite being one party, the Republican party has its splinter groups and caucuses, most notably the House’s Freedom Caucus and the Republican Study Committee. While they share a great number of opinions, they manifest differently. Roll Call has an example of that in the Ex-Im Bank issue.

Hemp It Up – While not having progressive views on marijuana, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is very pro industrial hemp. Read more at Roll Call.

Bummer – The Google self-driving car was seriously rear ended (again). This time its Lexus was bumped. Read more at USA Today.

$1 billion – Is the cost of both the NASA efforts to go to Pluto and a new Minnesota Vikings Stadium. CBS Reality Check asks how should we be spending our money.

The latest poll from Fox News puts Donald Trump at the top of the Republican field, with 18 percent.

Senate Passes ESEA

Posted on July 16, 2015July 17, 2015

Today, the Senate finished its debate and votes on amendments to S. 1177, the Every Child Achieves Act, a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). In total, of the 79 amendments that were voted on, 66 were adopted and 13 failed.

The Senate has passed a bipartisan overhaul of the long-expired No Child Left Behind education law by a vote of 81-17.

The bill would continue to require annual testing in reading and math but restores power over low-performing schools back to states.

The partisan House-passed version, which passed earlier this month, goes to an extreme that Democrats and the White House have condemned. The most contentious point of the House version is that it would allow federal dollars to follow students to another public school of their choice.

To devise a version that can become law, lawmakers will have to satisfy White House concerns about the bill’s protections for poor and minority students and House GOP demands that the bill diminish the federal role in education.

White House Memo on Science Priorities for FY2017

Posted on July 10, 2015July 17, 2015

The White House’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Shaun Donovan, and OSTP Director, John Holdren, sent their annual joint FY2017 priorities memo to the science agency heads.

The memo urges agency leaders to take the priorities into consideration as they begin to prepare their FY2017 budget proposals for OMB. Per the memo, “Agency proposals aligned with multi-agency R&D priorities and demonstrating interagency coordination are more likely to be prioritized in FY2017 Budget deliberations.”

Read the memorandum here.