*****ACTION ADVISORY*****
FY 2014 Appropriations
AASCU strongly urges you to contact your House members and urge them not to cut education funding.
The House Appropriations Committee passed proposed spending bills that
would protect military and homeland security funding by making deep cuts
in domestic programs. House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY),
has proposed a $967 billion plan for 12 annual spending bills known as
302(b) allocations. This is $17 billion below the 1st round
of spending cuts in March. The $121.8 billion allocated to the Labor,
Education, Health, and Human Services budget would be the lowest level
since 1998 when adjusted for inflation. Select cuts to popular higher
education programs are:
-
Pell Grant Discretionary Fund-$4.2 Billion
-
Department of Education Discretionary Fund-$ 8 Billion
-
Federal Trio Programs-$148 Million
-
Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants-$130 Million
Student Loan Interest Rate
Yesterday, the United States Senate held two votes to prevent student loan interest rates from rising on July 1st.
Under current law, interest rates on student loans affecting more than 7
million borrowers are set to double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent. Both
bills needed 60 votes to advance in the Senate. The Republican bill, S. 1003,
introduced by Senator Tom Coburn(R-OK), would tie interest rates to the
10 year Treasury note plus 3.0 percent. This bill failed on a vote of
40-57. The Democratic proposal, S. 953 introduced
by Senator Jack Reed(D-RI), would extend the current 3.4 percent
interest rate for another two years. This bill also failed on a 51-46
vote.
House Republicans passed a bill, H.R 1911
that would make student borrowing more expensive. The bill, would add
more than $4 billion in borrowing costs to students by asking them to
pay higher interest payments for their student loans.
Find a comparison of various student loan interest rate plans here.
Based on our current information, it is very likely that there will not be agreement among the parties by July 1.
The President has signaled his intent to veto the House bill as it now
stands. It does not appear as if the two chambers are talking with each
other, nor are there any serious discussions of which we might be aware
to resolve the differences in the competing bills.
AASCU has not taken a formal position on either bill but will keep the
membership informed of developments on Capitol Hill as these bills
continue in the legislative process.
H.R. 1949 The Improving Postsecondary Education for Student’s Act
During the debate on the student loan interest rate, the House of
Representatives passed the Improving Postsecondary Education for
Student’s Act (H.R. 1949). This bill would direct the Secretary of
Education to convene an advisory committee on improving postsecondary
education data. The committee would be comprised of 15 members and would
have to include higher education stakeholders. The idea behind this
bill is for the advisory committee to study the types of information the
federal government should collect and report on institutions of higher
education. A link to this bill can be found here. AASCU will be following this bill closely as it moves to the United States Senate.
Immigration
Debate on S. 744,
the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration
Modernization Act, will occur on the Senate floor beginning Monday, June
10th. Senate debate is expected to last the entire month of
June. Business groups have already secured an increase in the number of
temporary H-1B visas for highly skilled workers from 80,000 a year to
205,000 per year along with new rules that would make it easier for
employers to bring skilled foreign workers and their families to the
United States. It is expected there will be heavy debate on many of the
DREAM Act provisions, including provisions to provide federal financial
aid to students directly affected by the DREAM Act.
Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
Both the Senate and the House introduced legislation intended to
reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known
as No Child Left Behind. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the
Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee
introduced Strengthening America’s Schools Act of 2013 (link).
Stressed in this bill are student success and reforms of our nation’s
education system. Senator Alexander, and Republican colleagues on the
HELP Committee, introduced a parallel bill, Every Child Ready for College or Career Act, placing
most of the testing burden of accountability on the states to test in
grades 3 through 8, and in high school. The House Education and the
Workforce Chairman John Kline (R-MN) introduced the Student Success Act (link)
that is very much like the bill he introduced last year. This bill is
scheduled for Committee markup on Wednesday, June 19. Most notably, this
bill would require state teacher evaluation systems. AASCU will need to
review these bills and assess their impact on our institutions and our
institution’s Teacher Education programs.
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