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Category: Higher Education

Senate Introduces Budget Resolution

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Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced the Senate Budget today, whihc differs in big ways from a House GOP blueprint introduced yesterday. Both aim to balance the budget (the Senate in 10 years, the House in nine) and both cut over $5 billion in spending (the Senate cuts $5.1 trillion and the House would cut $5.5 trillion).  It proposes an additional $236 billion in cuts to non defense discretionary spending from FY2017-FY2025 and it would leave the defense discretionary caps at the sequester levels.

Most importantly, and a point that goes directly to the contention in the House Republicans, the Senate GOP budget only provides $58 billion for a war funding account known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund — much less than the $90 billion included in the House GOP budget. In a move to appease House defense hawks, the House Budget had a huge increase in the OCO, which is not subject to the Sequester caps. The budget resolution effectively draws a line in the sand over war funding by creating a point of order against raising Overseas Contingency Operations account funding above $58 billion next year. Points of order require 60 votes to pass. That means any move to boost the OCO funding would need the support of Senate Democrats. Obama has proposed $51 billion in war funds for the military.
As for policy directives, the Senate proposal includes reconciliation instructions for the Senate Finance and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committees to each find no less than $1 billion of savings over 10 years to put toward deficit reduction by no later than July 31, 2015. It also creates a Deficit-Neutral Reserve Fund (DNRF), a budget gimmick that allows Committee chairs to break budget constraints and will not result in a budget point of order, for the HELP Committee to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA).  The budget proposal also creates a DNRF for improvements in medical research, innovation and safety, among other health reforms.  The budget also calls for a DNRF for energy legislation, which could include reforms to research programs at the Department of Energy.
Similar to the House Republican Budget, the Senate budget would cut Pell — and cut $90 billion from the Pell grant program over 10 years. Additionally, the  proposal would set non-defense discretionary spending at $493 billion for 2016.
To read about the Senate Budget, click here. 
The Senate is marking up the budget Wednesday and Thursday, and it is expected that the full Senate will consider the proposal next week.

The Office of Federal Relations is currently monitoring the legislation and will make more information known as it becomes available.

Tyler Clementi Bill Reintroduced

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Today, Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) introduced the anti-harassment bill named for Tyler Clementi, the late Rutgers University freshman who committed suicide after being bullied over his sexual orientation.

The Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act of 2015 requires colleges to establish policies to prohibit harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion. A grant program established by the bill would support anti-harassment programs on campuses, including prevention, counseling and training.

Clementi jumped from the George Washington Bridge in fall 2010 after his roommate and another student filmed and circulated online video of him being intimate with a man.

The bill has been introduced in both chambers in each Congress since 2010, but has gone nowhere.

POTUS Announces Student Aid Bill of Rights

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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.

ED Accepting Applications for Fulbright-Hays

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The 2015 grant competition for the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Grant Program (DDRA) has begun! DDRA provides grants to colleges and universities to fund individual doctoral students who conduct research in other countries, in modern foreign languages and area studies for periods of six to 12 months.

Who may apply:

  • Institutions of Higher Education
  • Graduate students in doctoral programs in the fields of foreign languages and area studies must apply through the institutions in which they are enrolled.

A student is eligible to receive a fellowship if s/he:

  • Is a citizen or national of the United States or is a permanent resident of the United States;
  • Is a graduate student in good standing at an institution of higher education in the United States who, when the fellowship begins, is admitted to candidacy in a doctoral program in modern foreign languages and area studies at that institution;
  • Is planning a teaching career in the United States upon graduation; and
  • Possesses adequate skills in the language(s) necessary to carry out the dissertation project.

For more information and to apply please go to the Office of Postsecondary Education’s website: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/iegpsddrap/applicant.html

 

Senate Considers Reducing Red Tape for Colleges

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Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing on smarter federal regulations for colleges and universities. In November of 2013, Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Richard Burr (R-NC) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) appointed the Task Force on Federal Regulation of Higher Education. Sixteen college presidents and CEOs were charged with reviewing Education Department regulations and reporting requirements for the country’s 6,000 institutions.

The report, which was sponsored by the American Council on Education, was released last week. It acknowledges the importance of federal regulation in ensuring institutional accountability. Overall, the report states that “reporting requirements that have an excessive reach, or that are unnecessarily costly and difficult to implement — or worse still, that hinder student access to college and drive costs up — are counterproductive.” Areas of concern include institutional accreditation, uniform definitions of Clery crimes and verification of student eligibility for financial aid, among other issues.

With reauthorization of the Higher Education Act on the horizon, the task force’s report asks policymakers to follow a series of “guiding principles” to govern the ED’s development, implementation and enforcement of regulations. Among the recommendations: Rules should be relevant, clear and purposeful, and their costs and burdens should be accurately estimated. Penalties for violations should be appropriate. And the department should “take all necessary steps to facilitate compliance” on the part of institutions.

The issue has turned into a hot button one and multiple organizations have come out opposing the report.