ARPA-E Director Majumdar Resigns

Posted on May 9, 2012October 17, 2012

Today, Acting Undersecretary and ARPA-E Director Arun Majumdar announced that he will be resigning his role as Acting Undersecretary effective immediately, and Assistant Secretary David Sandalow has been chosen as his replacement. Furthermore, Dr. Majumdar also announced that he will be resigning his role as Director of ARPA-E effective June 8, 2012, and ARPA-E Deputy Director Eric Toone will take over leadership of the organization.

Dr. Majumdar came to Washington, DC two and a half years ago tasked with setting up the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, a new agency in the Department of Energy to fund projects that will develop transformational technologies that reduce America’s dependence on foreign energy imports; reduce US energy related emissions (including greenhouse gasses); improve energy efficiency across all sectors of the US economy and ensure that the US maintains its leadership in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies.

Dr. Majumdar has successfully accomplished the task put forth by the Obama Administration, to establish America’s first agency dedicated to catalyzing energy breakthroughs to secure America’s future. With ARPA-E now in its third year and a solid leadership team in place, Dr. Majumdar feels that it is an appropriate time to step down to be with his family in California. He will cherish the time he spent serving his country at ARPA-E and the Department of Energy and hopes that his work has helped lay the foundation for ARPA-E and America’s energy future. He would like to thank the Obama Administration, Energy Secretary Chu and his colleagues at the Department of Energy and ARPA-E for their dedication, constant support and the enriching experience.

Student Loan Interest Rates

Posted on May 8, 2012October 17, 2012

The Senate will take up a measure today that would prevent subsidized student loan interest rates from doubling this July. While both parties agree that they want to stop the rate hike from going forward, Senate republican leadership indicated Monday that they will likely filibuster the democratic measure because it opposes the proposed offset. Senate democrats need 60 votes to move forward with their bill. Democrats, who control 53 votes in the Senate, would need at least seven republicans to vote with them to overcome a filibuster and begin debate on the bill. House republicans have already passed a different version.

The democratic legislation would cover the $6 billion cost of preventing the interest rate increase by eliminating a corporate tax loophole that allows the wealthy to pay less in Social Security and Medicare taxes. Republicans prefer a measure similar to the House-passed bill, which would offset the cost of the interest rate cut by eliminating a fund in the 2010 health care overhaul that covers prevention and public health.

President Obama has made a campaign issue out of the bill because interest rates on Stafford loans will jump to 6.8 percent from 3.4 percent if Congress doesn’t act by July 1^st.

UPDATE: The Senate just voted to blocked the bill to prevent doubling of the student loan rates. Stay tuned…

This Week in Congress

Posted on May 7, 2012October 17, 2012

Congress returns to work today after a week-long recess period. The Senate convenes at 2:00pm and continues debate of the student loan interest rate bill. The House is also in at 2:00pmwith votes expected around 6:30pm.

This afternoon, the House Budget Committee will mark up two bills: The Sequester Replacement Act of 2012 (HR 4966) and The Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act of 2012. Both measures aim to replace sequestration, the mandatory cuts scheduled to begin in January 2013. The first bill would stop sequestration from happening, while the second would outline a series of cuts to entitlement programs such as health care and food stamps that would replace the cuts to discretionary spending expected through sequestration. The full House is due to pass the package late in the week likely along partisan lines. However, the safe bet is Congress won’t reach agreement on how to deal with spending priorities until after the elections.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday the Senate is scheduled to debate a bill to keep interest rates on federally subsidized student loans at 3.4 percent for one more year, instead of increasing to the previous amount of 6.8 percent. The House passed a similar bill a week ago, but the two chambers differ on how to pay for the extension. In a sign of their desire to downplay the partisan tensions, Senate Republicans are expected to help Democrats reach the 60 votes needed to overcome a procedural hurdle to bringing the measure to the floor.

Tuesday also marks the formal launch of a House-Senate conference to write a surface transportation reauthorization bill. If conferees can’t come to an agreement on the bill before the November election, then chances are good the bill just won’t get done this year. And that will mean starting over from scratch early in 2013. The biggest hurdles include the length of reauthorization, policy riders approving the Keystone XL pipeline and blocking EPA’s authority to regulate coal ash, and how best to pay for the cost of highway and transit programs around the country. This bill reauthorizes the University Transportation Centers; the UW operates one of these centers for USDOT Region 10.

Also this week, the full House is scheduled to debate the FY 2013 Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill, which includes funding for NOAA and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. House Rules Committee meets at 5:00pm today to write the spending bill’s rule, and it will hit the floor sometime later in the week. This will be the first FY 2013 appropriations bill to be approved in the House, but differences over spending levels make it likely that both chambers won’t agree on most or even all of its spending bills until after the elections. But by sending the measures through committee and to the floor in each chamber, leaders are at least offering a starting place for those year-end negotiations. Congress has missed the statutory September 30^th appropriations deadline for more than a decade, instead relying on continuing resolutions to keep the government from shutting down until the final bills are cleared and signed by the President.

Legislative Update

Posted on April 30, 2012October 17, 2012

Congress is in recess this week, returning to work on Monday, May 7^th. Before leaving town last Friday, the House took action on legislation to delay the increase in student loan interest rates. And both chambers continued to move forward on their FY2013 appropriations measures.

FY 2013 Appropriations

While Congress is expected to finalize any major FY2013 spending decisions until after the November elections, it’s already apparent that we will see lean spending plans coming out of both chambers as they continue to work within the constraints of the Budget Control Act (LP 112-25) and also deal with deficit reduction. All of this will force lawmakers to more carefully prioritize spending and likely make tough, and substantial, programmatic cuts in both domestic and non-defense spending in coming years.

Student Loan Interest Rates

The topic du jour last week (and during the recess week) revolves around preventing the increase in student loan interest rates. While there appears to be broad, bipartisan support to prevent this increase, the two parties remain divided on how best to pay for it. On Friday, the House passed legislation that would prevent the 3.4 percent student loan interest rate from doubling in July, but the White House and Democrats are opposed because the measure’s $6 billion cost would be offset by eliminating the Prevention and Public Health Fund created by the 2010 health care reform bill. The fund provides money for programs aimed at preventing tobacco use, obesity, heart disease, strokes and cancer. While both parties oppose allowing the student loan interest rates to return to 6.8 percent, the White House vowed to veto the measure over the proposed repeal of the prevention fund. The Senate is expected to take up their version of the bill when Congress returns from recess next week. That proposal would offset the costs by ending a corporate tax break, which is backed by most Democrats. Senate leaders however, have indicated they will look for a compromise offset that both parties can agree to.

Surface Transportation Reauthorization

Shortly after returning to work next week, Congressional leaders will convene a Senate-House conference committee to negotiate a final measure to reauthorize highway and transit funding and programs. The two chambers are miles apart with the House advocating for a 5-year reauthorization and the Senate promoting a 2-year bill. There are also major differences on how to pay for highway and transit programs. It will certainly be a long, drawn out process that may – or may not – result in a final bill. The current “temporary” authorization runs out in 61 days and will certainly need another extension if Congress cannot come to agreement.

The Office of Federal Relations is tracking several provisions in the proposals that could have some impact on the University’s transit initiatives and the safety enhancements planned for the portion of the Burke Gilman Trail that runs through campus. Additionally, the bill will reauthorize the University Transportation Centers (UTC) program. The UW operates the Region 10 UTC.

Student Loan Interest Rates

Posted on April 23, 2012October 17, 2012

President Obama used his weekly address to call on Congress to prevent student interest rates from doubling in July. He believes that we should be doing everything we can to put higher education within reach for every American because “at a time when the unemployment rate for Americans with at least a college degree is about half the national average, it’s never been more important.” Obama is calling on Congress to act before student loan interest rates double for more than 7.4 million students, adding an average of $1,000 to their debt. Congress has a chance to take action on what should be an area of bipartisan agreement to prevent this unnecessary and damaging increase in interest rates. Watch the President’s address here.