Skip to content
News and updates

Category: Administration

POTUS Announces Student Aid Bill of Rights

Posted on

Today, President Barack Obama plans to unveil a “Student Aid Bill of Rights” designed to allow everyone to access and pay for quality higher education at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. An accompanying Presidential Memorandum contains several directives to federal agencies that officials say will make loan repayment easier and more equitable. While details are not fully known, it will mandate a complaint system where borrowers can log concerns and track responses “in a user-friendly way.” The Education Department will also be able to use the system to gauge loan servicer quality and the President will also ask the department to study how to address complaints against colleges, including potentially referring them to enforcement agencies when an institution makes misleading claims about job placements.

You can watch the President’s remarks at 1:30 p.m. ET.

The Administration’s Fact Sheet is here. 

The Office of Federal Relations will provide additional information as it becomes available.

New Plan for Homeland Security Appropriations Bill

Posted on

For the fourth time, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was unable evening to call up a $39.7 billion House-passed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending bill on Monday evening amid united Democratic opposition to provisions blocking recent executive action on immigration riders.

Following the failure, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to consider a standalone bill narrowly targeting the President’s 2014 Executive Order and sparing the Administration’s 2012 action aimed only at certain young immigrants. It’s the Republican leader’s first step in trying to disentangle the immigration fight from a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security.

At present, it looks like the the Senate may have no choice now but to fund the agency on a short-term basis. The move towards disentanglement is designed to sway a small number of Democratic Senators towards moving the bill, while also avoiding a shut down of the security agency. Further, it avoids a shutdown of the agency and the political blame that the Republicans would face (and fear similar to what happened with the last shut down) if DHS is shut down.

If funding does lapse, there would be 30,000 furloughs while approximately 75 to 80 percent of DHS employees would have to work without pay. Historically, Congress has given essential workers back pay for the duration of a funding lapse, but such funding is certainly not guaranteed. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson warned Congress that a stopgap measure would also have consequences, including delayed improvements to border security and delayed state and local aid.

The continuing resolution funding for DHS expires on Friday.

 

Ashton Carter Confirmed as Secretary of Defense

Posted on

Today, the Senate on Thursday confirmed Ashton B. Carter to be the next defense secretary by a vote of 93 to 5. The installation of the new Pentagon chief comes on the same day that the President has asked Congress for the authority to formally authorize (and increase) military action by the US against the Islamic State.

Carter, a former deputy defense secretary, and replaces Chuck Hagel in what has been a fairly swift confirmation process — the first hearings started in early February.

 

Pell Grant Levels Announced

Posted on

The Department of Education announced the maximum Pell grant levels for 2015-2016 today. The agency said the maximum award amount will be $5,775, which is an increase of $45 over the 2014-2015 award maximum.

The amount is affected by the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), which was incorporated as part of Public Law 111-152. SAFRA provides for an automatic annual increase, based on changes in the Consumer Price Index—through award year 2017-2018—to the appropriated Federal Pell Grant maximum award. This change has resulted in a 2015-2016 maximum award of $5,775. The corresponding maximum Pell Grant eligible expected family contribution (EFC) for 2015-2016 will be 5198.

Read the announcement here.

President Obama Drops Controversial 529 Plan

Posted on

President Obama has officially dropped the proposal outlined in his recent State of the Union Address that would eliminate the tax advantage of 529 investment programs after facing severe push-back from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and parents across the country.

Per the proposal, any money earned from future contributions to 529 college savings plans would have been subject to a tax. That revenue would have offset the cost of expanding the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which gives a tax break for higher-education expenses of up to $2,500 per student. Administration officials say the majority of families that would have lost a tax break on a 529 plan would have gained a break from the expansion of the AOTC tax credit. Critics warned the proposal would inequitably tax middle-class families at a time when college affordability is a significant issue.

The director of Washington State’s 529 program, called the Guaranteed Education Tuition plan (GET), shared concerns with Obama’s proposal in a Seattle Times article, which can be viewed here. The New York Times coverage of the Administration’s backpedaling can be read here.