News and updates

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

Federal “Affordability” Conundrum  –  The crisis of college affordability may not be solvable by the federal government: It has had much less control over tuition than state policies. Read more in The Atlantic. 

On the Rise, But More to Go – Meanwhile, higher education funding is creeping back toward pre-recession levels – but 45 states still appropriated fewer dollars per student last year than they did in 2008, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association’s (SHEEO) 13th annual State Higher Education Finance report. Still, 40 states boosted support in FY 2015, and total state and local government allocations to public colleges increased more than $4 billion, reaching nearly $91 billion. Factor in a 1.1 percent decline in full-time enrollment, and the average state and local support per student rose 5.2 percent to hit $6,966 – still more than $1,200 less than what was spent in 2008 – dragging down the share of education costs borne by students to 46.5 percent. That’s the lowest that figure has been since 2011. Read the report and get the data at SHEEO’s website. 

Ryan’s President Trump Problem – When House Speaker Paul Ryan effectively took himself out of consideration as a possible “Stop Trump” candidate at a contested GOP convention, the smart thinking immediately leapt to the idea that Ryan’s real sights are on the 2020 race. And, in many ways,  a “bide your time” makes sense, but if Ryan’s still Speaker at all in 2017, it’s likely to be a disastrous experience for him because of a forecasted an epic cycle of internecine fights and humiliating climb-downs that make John Boehner’s years in office look dignified due to the repercussions of the Trump campaign on the Republican party. Read more in Vox.

Unedumacated – Trump made headlines after the Nevada caucuses when he pronounced love for the “poorly educated.” New research from the Pew Research Center offers context that helps explain why. It finds that highly educated adults are far more likely to take liberal positions, and the education divide has only grown wider over the past 20 years. Watch the Trump statement after the Nevada primary at Politico. Read the Pew Study here. 

First Loser of the Season – The first primary loss by an incumbent in this election season happened to Rep. Chakah Fattah (D-PA). First elected in 1995, Rep. Fattah was an entrenched Democratic incumbent from Philadelphia, who lost his primary Tuesday night after being indicted on corruption charges last year. Fattah’s legal troubles gave an opening to state Rep. Dwight Evans, who narrowly defeated Fattah on Tuesday. Evans led with 43 percent of the vote to Fattah’s 36 percent, while two other challengers split the remainder with nearly every vote counted. Read more at Politco. 

Kinda Like David and Goliath – A small mammal has sabotaged the world’s most powerful scientific instrument. The Large Hadron Collider went off line this week from an electrical issue. Upon investigation, officials found the charred remains of most likely a weasel that had chewed through the power lines. Read more at NPR.

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

M-O-N-E-Y – An initial concern about Paul Ryan becoming Speaker was the sheer quantity of fundraising that the position requires and the amount of travel that will entail. Ryan, with two school-aged kids, was honest about not wanting to spend his weekends traveling the country wooing donors, and the fear was the House Republicans would not be able to raise as much. Well, those fears seem to be unwarranted. In the first quarter of 2016, “Team Ryan” raised more than $17 million, which was distributed to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), to Ryan’s personal campaign and to other candidates. In March alone, Team Ryan shipped $6.3 million to the NRCC. In fact, Ryan has put the NRCC fundraising at a better pace than where Boehner left it. Read more in The Washington Post.

It Isn’t Just About Winning – New York State’s primary election was this week, and for two candidates, the primary wasn’t simply about more delegates (although they need that to lock down respective nominations). Trump must take 50 percent of the vote in every congressional district in order to sweep the three delegates that are up for grabs in each district, which leaves little margin for error as he fights to reach the 1,237-delegate threshold to deliver him the nomination on the first ballot at the Republican Convention in July. For Clinton, a single-digit victory in the state that elected her twice to the Senate, and where she beat Barack Obama by 17 points in 2008, would signal vulnerabilities in her campaign. Plus, it is the home state of both Trump and Clinton. Read more in Politico.

Misleading Congress – A report out this week from the victim advocacy group Protect Our Defenders reveals that the Pentagon exaggerated and distorted the facts in order to undermine fundamental reform of the military justice system. Specifically, Adm. James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did so in 2013 when testifying before Congress about the Military Justice Improvement Act (MJLA), which the Department of Defense opposes. The facts in question, which are now refuted, are that that civilian prosecutors “refused” to prosecute 93 specific sexual assault cases that nonetheless went to court-martial because a military commander “insisted” on it. The MJLA would strip military commanders of the authority to decide whether a sexual assault case should move forward, and hand that authority over to independent military prosecutors instead. The Pentagon says this reform would undermine the chain of command and interfere with commanders’ ability to deal with problems in their units. Read more at Vox. Read the Protect Our Defenders report here. 

Future of Sourcing – Traditional techniques of of phone calls and mailers are alienating younger alumni, which is why the College of the Holy Cross College went online via GiveCampus. In 43 hours, the school raised nearly $2 million. GiveCampus has helped more than 70 colleges, high schools and elementary schools raise $10 million since it launched last year. The model is based on websites such as Kickstarter.com and IndieGoGo.com, but GiveCampus works directly with schools as a measure of quality control. Schools are charged a subscription fee based on the amount of money they aim to raise. Read more in the Washington Post. 

Splitsville – This week, the Supreme Court heard the oral arguments for the United States v. Texas, which is over the Administration’s plan to allow 4.5 million unauthorized immigrants to apply for protection from deportation and work permits. The lower court overturned the Administration’s Executive Order, and the court’s conservatives and liberals seemed split, and a 4-to-4 tie would leave in place a lower court’s decision that the president exceeded his powers in issuing the directive. However, in the wake of the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the court seems wary of having too many important cases concluded with a split decision. Read more about the case in Vox and in The Washington Post.

Ch-ch-ch-changes – The Treasury announced this week that Harriet Tubman will be the new face of the $20 bill replacing President Andrew Jackson. Tubman’s place on the twenty will go into effect by 2020 in time for the centennial of both the women’s suffrage and ratification of the 19th Amendment. Four other, yet to be released, female American icons will join Tubman on the back of the treasury note. Prior to the obscenely successful, Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway rap-musical “Hamilton”, there was a movement to replace Alexander Hamilton, first Treasury Secretary, on the $10 bill.  However, after impassioned pleas from Hamilton fans, including musical creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, Treasury decided to change the $20. [Note: While writing the musical, Miranda actually debuted songs from the musical at a White House event.] Read more in the New York Times.

• Read the 11 Things Every Die-Hard Hamilton Fan Wants You To Know at the Huffington Post.
• Buzzfeed has 19 Things You’ll Only Understand If You’re A “Hamilton” Fan Who Hasn’t Seen “Hamilton”.
• Read Cokie Roberts argument that Alexander Hamilton should be replaced with a picture of his wife, Elizabeth, who managed to save her husband’s career.