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Category: Higher Education

House Passes ESEA

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This evening, the House further considered and passed HR 5, the Student Success Act, which reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The House voted on ten amendments for which recorded votes were already requested in February 2015 and considered four new amendments, as well as a Democratic motion to recommit. The bill passed by a narrow vote of 218-213. No Democrats voted for the measure. The legislation would make fundamental changes to many of its programs through fiscal 2019. Additionally, it would allow Title I funding to follow individual students to other schools, and eliminates more than 65 elementary and secondary education programs and merges their funding. The White House has threatened to veto the bill.

The Senate has been and will continue to debate their version of ESEA (S 1177, Every Child Achieves Act of 2015) for the remainder of the week. The White House has issued a Statement of Administrative policy on S 1177, requesting changes to the testing cap, but not a veto threat.

Senate Appropriations Committee Passes FY16 Labor-H

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Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed it’s FY16 Labor-H bill by a vote of 16-14. The Senate draft would cut spending from the 2015 enacted level by almost $4 billion to $153 billion and is $14.5 billion below President Barack Obama’s request. The bill would eliminate funding for the Independent Payment Advisory Board, created by the 2010 health law (PL 111-148, PL 111-152) to recommend Medicare spending cuts under certain circumstances.

Both the House and Senate FY16 Labor-H proposals are now cleared to be considered by their respective bodies. There is no timeline on when the Senate would begin consideration of its draft.

House Committee Passes FY16 Labor-H

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The House Appropriations Committee passed it’s FY16 Labor-H bill by a vote of 30-21. The passage came after hours of debate during which Democrats bitterly criticized funding levels for domestic discretionary accounts and saw a series of their amendments defeated. The bill is $3.7 billion below fiscal 2015 enacted levels and $14.6 billion below President Barack Obama’s budget request. It contains increased funding for the National Institutes of Health but would block new discretionary spending to implement the Affordable Care Act. Additionally, the Administration has issued a letter of concern about the legislation. It is speculated that an official veto threat will not be far behind.

The legislation is expected to be considered on the House Floor after the Fourth of July Recess.

 

White House Issues Veto Threat on House’s FY16 House Interior and OMB Letter on FY16 Labor-H Appropriations Bill

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As discussed yesterday, the House’s FY16 Interior appropriations bill contained significant cuts and policy riders which would be of serious concern to the White House. Accordingly, the White House has issued a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) about the House’s draft bill, which includes a veto threat. Additionally, the OMB Director Donovan wrote a letter on the House’s FY16 Labor-H appropriations bill outlining the Administration’s concerns.

This not the first veto threat offered by the administration this year (see here and here). Both SAPs for the House’s FY16 Interior and FY16 Labor-H measures cite the conformance to Sequestration levels of funding as an overarching reason to veto the measures, which has been a reoccurring theme all year.

The SAP on the FY16 Interior bill cites the drastically underfunded core Department of the Interior programs as well as the Environmental Protection Agency’s operating budget. Additionally, the SAP states concerns with “the numerous highly problematic ideological provisions that have no place in funding legislation. These provisions threaten to undermine the ability of States and communities to address climate change and protect a resource that is essential to America’s health—clean water, as well as the most basic protections for America’s special places and the people and wildlife that rely on them.

Additionally, the Administration raises concerns with the numerous policy riders including: blocking the Department of the Interior’s proposed fracking regulations; preventing the implementation of the National Ocean Policy; prohibit funding for the EPA to impose new Green House Gas standards; prevent the EPA from continuing work to implement the 2008 Lead Renovating and Repairing rule until the EPA develops a commercially available “improved” lead paint test kit; and allow the use of lead ammunition in the hunting of migratory waterfowl on public lands.

Finally, the SAP raise separation of powers concerns with the bill due to the policy provisions.

The OMB letter on the FY16 Labor-H bill cites the cuts and restrictions to the Affordable Care Act, the cuts to programs like Head Start, the $6.7 billion cut to the Department of Ed (from the PBR’s proposal), and the effective $370 million cut to Pell. The SAP says in part:

“Through a combination of funding cuts and ideologically-motivated restrictions, the Subcommittee bill would obstruct the functioning of the Health Insurance Marketplaces, jeopardizing or disrupting coverage for the more than 10 million people currently enrolled in health insurance plans through the Marketplaces. It would also deny assistance to States expanding their Medicaid programs under the ACA, jeopardizing coverage for many millions more.

– and –

“This bill includes a $370 million cut to the Pell Grant program, which will make it more difficult to help students pay for college over the next decade. It also cuts funding for administering and overseeing the student aid programs by $136 million, or roughly 9 percent, below the President’s request, hurting the Department of Education’s ability to hold the approximately 6,500 colleges and universities that receive Federal dollars accountable to students and taxpayers and ensure that all students have access to high­ quality loan servicing.”

Additionally the letter cites concerns about the elimination of Title X family planning funds, cuts to the Social Security Administration, and cuts to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) which procures new medical countermeasures to protect against potential chemical; biological, radiological and nuclear attacks. Finally, the Administration is concerned about the numerous policy riders including the prevention of the ED from implementing the Gainful Employment regulations as well as the host of riders designed to defund and effectively kill the ACA.

 

 

Senate Subcommittee Passes FY16 Labor-H

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The Senate Appropriations Labor, Health, Human Services, Education and Labor Subcommittee considered and passed their FY16 Labor-H bill today. While the Senate version has a higher discretionary amount than the House version, which will need to be worked out in conference.

Education Funding

The Committee bill provides funding to increase the maximum Pell Grant award from $5,775 in the 2015-16 school year to an estimated $5,915 for the 2016-17 school year. While the bill maintains $22.5 billion in discretionary spending for Pell Grants in fiscal year 2016, it would rescind $300 million in funds that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will be needed to support the program next year.  The bill also cuts $29 million from Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants and $40 million from Federal Work Study.  All three programs help low- and moderate-income college students and their families cover the many costs of higher education.

Similarly to the House version, the Senate includes several policy riders to address and curtail administrative actions taken by the Department of Education (ED).  The bill includes a new provision prohibiting the ED from moving forward with several new regulations expanding the Federal government’s role in higher education, until Congress has an opportunity to weigh in through the authorization process, as appropriate. Specifically, the bill prohibits the Department from moving forward with regulations or policies to develop or implement a college ratings system, define gainful employment, establish requirements for the State authorization of higher education programs, define credit hour, and establish a new accountability framework for teacher preparation programs.

Health Funding

The bill funds the Department of Health and Human Services at $70.4 billion, a $646 million decrease from FY2015. Further, the bill eliminates Affordable Care Act (ACA) funding and includes several provisions prohibiting any funds from being transferred to specific ACA activities that were never intended to be supported with discretionary funds prevent the administration from diverting funds away from core CMS activities.  In addition, several oversight provisions are included in the bill:

  • Risk Corridor – Bill language is included requiring the administration to operate the Risk Corridor program in a budget neutral manner by prohibiting any funds from the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill from being used as payments for the Risk Corridor program.
  • State-Based Exchanges – With the increasing number of State-Based Exchanges failing due to lack of revenue, the bill includes new language preventing the administration from using discretionary funds to pay for operational costs for these Exchanges.
  • Health Exchange Transparency – Bill language is included requiring the administration to publish ACA-related spending by category since the Act’s inception.
  • ACA Personnel – Bill language is included requiring the administration to publish information on the number of employees, contractors, and activities involved in implementing, administering, or enforcing provisions of the ACA.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) – $32 billion, an increase of $2 billion above FY2015.  This is the largest increase the NIH has received since its doubling ended in 2013.

  • $200 million for Precision Medicine;
  • $350 million increase for the National Institute on Aging, the lead Institute researching Alzheimer’s disease;
  • $135 million, an increase of $70 million, for the BRAIN Initiative to map the human brain;
  • $461 million, an increase of $100 million, to Combat Antibiotic Resistance;
  • $300 million, an increase of $26.7 million, for the Institutional Development Award;
  • and increases to every Institute and Center to continue investments in innovative research that will advance fundamental knowledge and speed the development of new therapies, diagnostics, and preventive measures to improve the health of all Americans.

Other Provisions

Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).  The bill fails to provide a requested increase of $40 million for fiscal year 2016 to support the costs associated with replacing CPB’s interconnections system.  To cover these costs, the bill would allow CPB to make cuts to its support for local television and radio stations.

Social Security Administration (SSA).  The bill cuts SSA by $185 million, or roughly two percent, affecting the 50 million Americans who currently receive retirement and survivor benefits from Social Security, as well as the millions more who become eligible this year.  On an average work day in fiscal year 2016, SSA predicts it will process about 22,000 applications for retirement and survivor benefits, a 29 percent increase since fiscal year 2008.  At this bill’s funding level, SSA would need to reduce staff, office hours, planned information technology investments and curtail planned improvements to customer service and program integrity.  This reduction could result in a furlough of up to two weeks for SSA staff.

Federal Relations will continue to track the legislation and provide updates as text and report become available.