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Category: Administration

Obama Takes Action on Immigration

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President Obama has announced during a prime-time television address on Thursday evening that he will take executive action on immigration. The sweeping actions aim to shield as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation and will grant work permits to some.
A new program will allow the parents of US citizens and permanent residents to apply for work permits and deferred deportation. It is estimated that around 4 million parents are eligible to take advantage of this sweeping reform. To be eligible, parents must be here illegally for at least five years and have no felony convictions.
In addition, federal law enforcement officers are directed to shift enforcement efforts to illegal immigrants with criminal records, gang affiliations, or ties to terrorism going forward. There will also be a long-overdue expansion of high-tech visas, and restrictions on would-be entrepreneurs will be loosened to allow them to travel more freely to the US to launch companies.

The GOP has confirmed that the executive actions cannot be blocked through appropriations. While many within the GOP claim the President does not have legal authority to make such sweeping actions, the White House maintains it does and points to the fact that every US President in the last half century has taken executive action on immigration.

 

New Deadline on RFI for National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI)

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Last year, President Obama launched a major, new initiative focused on strengthening the innovation, performance, competitiveness, and job-creating power of U.S. manufacturing called the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI). Key design elements for the NNMI are captured within National Network for Manufacturing Innovation: A Preliminary Design, a report issued by the White House National Science and Technology Council on January 16, 2013. The NNMI is comprised of Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation (IMIs). The President has proposed up to 45 IMIs around the country. Congress is currently considering bills in both houses similar to the President’s proposal.

A Request for Information (RFI) was published June 2, 2014 on FedBizOps. Responses were originally due October 24, 2014 but that deadline has been moved up to October 10, 2014. The RFI seeks information about the following Technical Focus Areas:

  • Flexible Hybrid Electronics
  • Photonics
  • Engineered Nanomaterials
  • Fiber and Textiles
  • Electronic Packaging and Reliability
  • Aerospace Composites

IMIs will bring together industry, academia (four- and two-year universities, community colleges, technical institutes, etc.), and federal and state agencies to accelerate innovation by investing in industry-relevant manufacturing technologies with broad applications. Each Institute will have a specific technology or market focus and will serve as a regional hub of manufacturing excellence in that focus area, providing the critical infrastructure necessary to create a dynamic, highly collaborative environment spurring manufacturing technology innovations and technology transfer leading to production scale-up and commercialization. When established, each IMI will be a public-private partnership via a Cooperative Agreement and key part of the NNMI network of institutes.

Obama Aims to Ease Student Debt

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President Obama announced today a new executive order aimed at easing student borrowers’ debt loads by capping repayments at 10 percent of their monthly income. Obama also made student loans the focus of his weekly address on Saturday, saying he’d be taking action this week.

The executive order will expand on a 2010 law, the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act, that capped borrowers’ repayment. The law left a hole in eligibility for people with older loans — anyone who borrowed before October 2007 or stopped borrowing by October 2011, which is approximately 5 million borrowers — were not eligible for the cap. The executive order will close the hole, but relief, however, would not be available until December 2015. The time is needed for the Department of  Education (ED) to propose and put new regulations into effect.

In addition, the President will announce that ED will renegotiate contracts with companies that service federal loans to give them additional financial incentives to help borrowers avoid delinquency or default.  Further, both ED and Treasury will work with the nation’s largest tax-preparation firms, H&R Block and Intuit Inc., to ensure that borrowers are aware of repayment options and tax credits for college tuition.

Finally, the President is expected to urge the swift passage of S 2292, the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act. The measure introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) last week and has been championed by people like Senators Murray and Cantwell. The measure would would allow an estimated 25 million Americans to refinance student loans, federal and private, at lower interest rates. Reduced interest payments would cost the government about $58 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, but the legislation would raise $72 billion by imposing a new tax on some high-income individuals.

Fact Sheet on the Legislation Available here.

Bill Text Available here.

The Senate is expected to consider Warren’s bill (as S 2432) this week, but the measure has little chance of consideration by the House.

Senate Confirms Burwell

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Today, the Senate voted 78-17 to confirm Sylvia Mathews Burwell as secretary of Health and Human Services. Burwell replaces Kathleen Sebelius, who stepped down earlier this year. 

Easton to leave IES

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 John Easton announced today that he will be leaving his position as Director of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) this Fall to take a position at the Spencer Foundation in Chicago.

As director of IES, Easton oversaw the National Center for Education Statistics, the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, the National Center for Education Research, and the National Center for Special Education Research.

Easton was confirmed by the Senate and has served at Director of IES since May 2009. He was confirmed for a 6 year term. Prior to coming to IES, he was the executive director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago.