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Category: On the Hill

Higher Ed Legislation Advances

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Today Senate HELP Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) will introduce his plan to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. The Higher Education Affordability Act focuses on four goals: Increasing college affordability, helping struggling borrowers, strengthening accountability, and improving transparency. These goals will be achieved through 21 action points, including tightening for-profit regulations, better accountability metrics for colleges and universities, and a reduction in loan borrower fees.

The Harkin proposal overlaps ever so slightly with goals outlined yesterday by Congressman John Kline (R-MN) and House Education & the Workforce Committee Republicans. Kline plans to introduce the first of a series of HEA-related bills, which will revolve around transparency, accountability, a simplified aid system, and limited federal regulation. We expect to see this bill later in the week.

Also today, the Senate will take up the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which would modernize the workforce education system in the U.S. Democratic Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and GOP Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) both spent years negotiating the long overdue reauthorization. Lawmakers will consider the bill under a unanimous consent agreement. This is the first significant step in years toward reauthorization.

And finally, House Ways and Means Committee will mark up today a pair of bills addressing the child tax credit and education tax credits.The education tax bill would streamline a laundry list of credits and expand and make permanent the existing American Opportunity Tax Credit. The Child Tax Credit bill, introduced Monday by Congresswomen Lynn Jenkins (R-KS), would expand the number of individuals and families who can access the credit by increasing the income threshold from $110,000 to $150,000 for joint filers.

FY 2015 Appropriations Process in Question

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) effectively ended debate for now on the FY 2015 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations after he was unable to reach an agreement with Republicans over amendments. The CJS bill funds NSF, Census, NIJ and other agencies. The CJS bill, which was being considered as part of a “minibus” including two other “non-controversial” funding bills, was largely seen as a bellwether for gauging the Senate’s appetite for passing funding bills before the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30th and before the November midterm elections.

This all comes just days after the Senate Appropriations Committee indefinitely postponed consideration of their FY 2015 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill, which includes funding for NIH and Pell Grants. The Senate Labor-HHS-Education subcommittee approved the bill by a voice vote earlier this week and was expected that the full committee would hold a markup on today. There has been no information provided on whether the action will be rescheduled.

It seems that the fate of the FY 2015 appropriations process is unknown; it is unclear when or if either bill will be taken back up in the Senate. And it is becoming more and more clear that we will see a continuing resolution (CR) in September. We will keep you posted on these and other developments.

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. 

House Passes CJS, Senate Considers Its Version Next Week

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The House passed the FY15 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill after 1 am this morning. The measure passed by a vote of 321-87. This legislation provides a 3.3% increase for NSF funding over FY14 levels. It also provides ample funding for science programs at NASA. 

Earlier in the evening, the House considered an amendment by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the Chairman of the House Science Committee. The amendment proposed to reduce  funding for the Social, Behavioral and Economic Science’s Directorate by $15.35 million research and related activities, and added to alternate research within the National Science Foundation portfolio. The amendment is similar to an amendment Smith added to the FIRST Act earlier in the week. The Smith Amendment passed by a vote of 208-201 (18 Republicans voted against and 5 Democrats voted for the amendment). 

Next week, June 3rd, the Senate Appropriations Committee will take up its version of the FY Commerce, Justice, Science bill.

Larsen Introduces Bill to Protect Bereaved Student Borrowers

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Today, Congressman Rick Larsen (D-WA) introduced the Bereaved Student Borrowers Act. The bill  is designed to protect grieving students and students facing family hardship from auto-defaulting on their private student loans and to get better access to information about cosigner release requirements. The bill also prohibits lenders from reporting an auto-default as a result of cosigner death or bankruptcy to credit reporting companies and stops these companies from including this information on their reports.

This issue was brought to light by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which identified significant issues facing private student loan borrowers in a recent quarterly report. As of 2011, approximately 90 percent of private student loans had cosigners, and many of these loan contracts contain clauses allowing the loan to be accelerated into default upon death or bankruptcy of a cosigner, often a parent or grandparent, even when students are making loan payments on time.

The bill has eight original cosponsors, including Reps. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Niki Tsongas (D-MA), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Pedro Pierluisi, Denny Heck (D-WA), André Carson (D-IN), William Enyart (D-IL), Peter Welch (D-VT), and James Moran (D-VA).

A fact sheet on the bill can be found here.