Two Down…10 To Go

Posted on May 1, 2015

Yesterday the House passed the first appropriations vote of the season. The FY16 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs (HR 2029) passed with a vote of 255 – 163, largely along party lines. Known colloquially as MilCon-VA, the measure is historically the least controversial of all the 12 annual appropriations bills. It passed last year with the support of every House Democrat and Republican with the exception of Rep. Raúl M. Labrador (R-ID), a conservative with an idiosyncratic voting record.

On Wednesday morning, threats to withhold votes on the bill took on new significance as Democrats were emboldened by President Barack Obama’s veto threat, disapproval from the VA secretary and grumbles from influential veterans services organization. All the stakeholders said the funding levels were too low.

And by Wednesday evening, Republicans saw a second red flag, prompting them to suddenly cancel scheduled votes that night on remaining MilCon-VA amendments and final passage.

House Democratic leaders succeeded in holding all but 19 of their Members in voting against the measure without even formally whipping against the Republican bill.

This morning, the House approved its FY16 Energy & Water spending bill (H.R. 2028) on a largely party-line vote of 240-177. The bill includes $5.1 billion for the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, which is a small increase of $29 million, or 0.6 percent, above the FY15 enacted level.

Within of the Office of Science are the following funding amounts:

Advanced Scientific Computing Research: $537.5 million, an increase of $3.4 million, or 0.6 percent, above FY15;
Basic Energy Sciences: $1.7 billion, an increase of $37 million, or 2.1 percent, above FY15;
Biological and Environmental Research: $538 million, a significant cut of $54 million, or 9.1 percent, below FY15;
Fusion Energy Sciences: $467 million, a slight increase of $100,000 over FY15. The measure would freeze funding for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) at the FY15 level of $150 million, and raise funding for the domestic fusion science program by $100,000 to $317 million.
High Energy Physics: $776 million, an increase of $10 million, or 1.3 percent, above FY15;
Nuclear Physics: $616 million, which is $20.6 million, or 3.5 percent, above FY15; and
ARPA-E: funding is frozen at the FY15 level of $280 million.

What We’re Reading, April 27- May 1

Posted on May 1, 2015

Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations team found of interest.

Refueling Research – An op-ed by Senator Ed Markey about the value of basic science and federal investment. Read more at the Huffington Post. 6309689078_a2355d1142_z

IX – ED released a new packet of info for Title IX coordinators. First instruction, don’t forget to designate someone as a Title IX coordinator. Read more at Inside Higher Ed.

Jobless Lawyers – An article on the growing issue of law school graduates, from such prestigious institutions like Columbia University, that cannot find jobs after graduation. Only 40% of 2010 law school graduates are practicing in a law firm, but all have the same law school debt. Read more at the New York Times.

Whether MOOCs? – There has been massive hype about Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) changing the model of higher education, but who is researching their effectiveness? The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is out with a new report on what is being researched on MOOCs. Read more at The Chronicle.

Ahhem – President Obama participated in a “virtual field trip” this week, and his interview with a 6th grader was big on the internet by because the 6th grader cut the President off, because Obama was cutting into lunch time. Read more at Politico.

House Passes Conference Committee Budget

Posted on April 30, 2015May 1, 2015

The House of Representatives approved the FY16 budget resolution conference report (SConRes 11) with a vote of 226-197, sending the measure to the Senate for final approval. The measure provides overall guidance for spending but is not signed into law by the President. The FY16 agreement follows the spending caps enacted in the Budget Control Act for both defense and non-defense discretionary spending in FY16, but it bolsters defense spending by using the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund, which does not count against the spending caps. The measure provides $96 billion for the OCO in FY16, or $38 billion more than the President requested.

The conference agreement authorizes the use of the expedited reconciliation process only for making changes to or repealing the Affordable Care Act.

More Books! Initiatives from the White House and Rep. Suzan DelBene

Posted on April 30, 2015April 30, 2015

Today, President Barack Obama announced that major and independent book publishers are making 10,000 of their most popular titles available for free for low-income students through e-books, and effort estimated to be worth about $250 million. Obama said the devices will play a big part and a gap in access between low-income students and their peers still exists across the country. This new initiative is a part of the Administration’s ConnectED initiative, first launched in 2013. With smartphone use on the rise, this initiative will allow many low-income students to access e-books at home, they said. As part of the challenge, the Institute of Museum and Library Services will invest $5 million to support the development of an e-reader app, tools and services to access the digital content.

Related to that initiative, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (D-WA) introduced bipartisan legislation this week to help college students save money on textbooks by encouraging the use of low-cost or free digital course materials in higher education. The E-BOOK Act – or Electronic Books Opening Opportunity for Knowledge Act – would direct the Department of Education to use $20 million to create 10 pilot programs at public institutions throughout the country to increase access to digital course materials, expand the availability of e-readers and tablets for low-income students and encourage professors to incorporate new learning technologies into their classes.

The University of Washington has been a proud collaborator with Congresswoman DelBene on the E-BOOK Act and is a supporter to ensure that texts books are affordable and accessible.

FY16 Budget Conference Committee Resolution

Posted on April 30, 2015April 30, 2015

Late yesterday, House and Senate conferees released SConRes 21 – the Budget Resolution for FY 2016, which is the conference agreement for the FY16 Budget. As a reminder, the Conferenced budget is not law. While it is not signed by the President, the measure does bind the House and Senate on policy and spending directives for the current fiscal year and into the future effectually carrying the force of law.

As a note, the work of Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Congressman Paul Ryan (R-MN) lead to the enactment of the Bipartisan Budget Act in December 2013. That law rolled back and replaced a portion of the sequester of discretionary spending required by the 2011 Budget Control Act for FY 2014 and FY 2015 and thereby enabled Congress to later enact omnibus appropriations packages for those two years.

The House is expected to consider the measure today, and it is expected to pass.

The measure’s FY 2016 discretionary spending adheres to the sequester-reduced defense and non-defense caps set by the Budget Control Act but also includes more funds for defense for FY 2016 through the uncapped OCO account and proposes to add extra funds to that account through FY 2021. It assumes an extra $245 billion for defense over 10 years while cutting non-defense spending below sequester-reduced levels by $496 billion.

It proposes $4.2 trillion in reductions to mandatory programs over 10 years, calls for a deficit-neutral overhaul of the tax code that lowers rates and assumes $124 billion in additional savings through “dynamic scoring” through Fair Value Accounting. This accounting measure is concerning because it changes fundamental assumptions of the costs of major programs like Pell and student loans. The measure’s FY 2016 discretionary spending adheres to the sequester-reduced defense and non-defense caps set by the Budget Control Act, but also includes more funds for defense for FY 2016 through the uncapped OCO account and proposes to add extra funds to that account through FY 2021. It assumes an extra $245 billion for defense over 10 years while cutting non-defense spending below sequester-reduced levels by $496 billion.

The agreement calls for a balanced budget by FY 2024, entirely by reducing spending $5.3 trillion over the next 10 years. Funding would be reduced though:

instructions to House and Senate committees with oversight over the health care law to trigger the budget reconciliation process to try to repeal that law,
reducing spending on Medicare and Medicaid
changing programs such as food stamps.

For higher ed specifically:

The budget eliminates all mandatory Pell funding, assumes the maximum grant will be frozen at the current level and be fully funded on the discretionary side. This purportedly would achieve a $84.6 billion in savings (Mandatory Pell funding is $73.9 billion over ten years, plus another $10.7 billion of mandatory spending already provided to support the discretionary grant.)
Eliminates in-school subsidies for undergraduate Stafford loans. (Saving $34.8 billion.)
Eliminates public sector loan forgiveness. (Saving $10.5 billion.)
Eliminates expansion of Income Based Repayment programs. (Saving $16.3 billion.)

The Budget Committee’s switch to Fair Value accounting, would make student loans appear vastly more expensive to the federal government than they are – $223 billion more expensive from this year through 2024. Previously, student loans were seen as assets that made money for the federal government.