April 22, 2008
While informal meetings between House and Senate education committee staff continue in an attempt to negotiate differences between the House- and Senate-passed Higher Education Act (HEA) reauthorization bills, recent focus on the “credit crisis” has diverted some attention. The current HEA reauthorization extension expires April 30, and while hopes had been high that a bill could be completed by this deadline, it now appears that another month-long extension will be passed. Congress now plans to complete work on the comprehensive reauthorization bill before its Memorial Day recess in late May.
In the meantime, economic concerns related to the credit markets prompted the House to pass H.R. 5715, the “Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act,” by a vote of 383-27 on April 17. The legislation is designed to ensure the continued availability of student loans in the wake of the emerging credit squeeze. It would raise annual dollar limits on federal student loans, allow parents to defer repayment of their federal loans until after the student leaves college, and expand the ability of the federal government to support lenders who have difficulty re-selling their loans. Currently, it is unclear how many, if any, students and institutions are being negatively affected by the credit markets, but this bill was a proactive step to safeguard student lending in the future. Senator Kennedy (D-MA) has introduced a similar bill in the Senate, but it is not known when that legislation might move forward.
March 17, 2008
Congress once again was unable to complete work on the Higher Education Act and extended the current legislation through April 30. The extension, S. 2733, was cleared by the Senate on March 7 and the House on March 12. It will provide Members of Congress with additional time to negotiate differences between the House- and Senate-passed bills, H.R. 4137 and S. 1642. While a formal conference committee has not been appointed, informal negotiations have been occurring over the past few weeks and policymakers are optimistic that a final bill can be completed by the new April 30 deadline.
March 3, 2008
On February 7, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4137, its version of a bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. The bill had bi-partisan support and passed 354-58. A summary of the bill is available on the House Education and Labor Committee Web site.
The recent House action allows negotiations to begin with the Senate on its version of HEA reauthorization passed last summer, S. 1642. House and Senate education committee staff have begun “pre-conference” discussions aimed at finally finishing the bill, which has been extended numerous times since its original expiration in 2003, but time is of the essence. The current HEA extension expires March 30, but with Congress leaving for its spring recess, work must be completed by March 14.
This leaves a great deal of work to be done in a short time period, and it looks at this time like yet another extension will be needed. The Higher Education Act is huge in scope, for example the House bill is over 700 pages, and governs a broad range of programs from federal aid to postsecondary institutions and students to teacher training programs.
Some of the specific issues included in the current House and/or Senate bills include increasing the amount of information that schools and lenders must provide students, creating a “higher education price index” that allows for the comparison of tuition increases over time, and penalties for states that reduce support for higher education.
Most importantly to CTE programs, the bills look at issues such as allowing Pell Grants to be used year-round and opening the Academic Competitiveness Grant Program to students attending college at least half time and to those in certificate programs. These changes, if enacted, would make it easier for the typical CTE student at a community or technical college to access federal financial aid.
January 25, 2008
The first item on the agenda for Congress in 2008 related to education and training appears to be the Higher Education Act (HEA) reauthorization. The Senate passed its HEA bill in 2007, but is now waiting on the House of Representatives to complete its work. It is rumored that the House plans to consider its bill, H.R. 4137, early in February, clearing the way for a House and Senate conference to work out differences between the two bills.
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