At a speech today at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Education Secretary Arne Duncan outlined the Administration’s priorities for a higher education reauthorization.The bulk of the remarks focused on affordability, which has been a focus for the Obama Administration for nearly his whole tenure. Secretary Duncan reiterated the dual goals of paying for college and limiting college debt. He also focused on degree completion and the Administration’s goal that those that start college, finish college. Part of this formulation will be colleges and universities putting “skin in the game” and attaching federal student loan funding to the outputs of institutes of higher education, focusing on degree completion and graduates who get jobs. States will also have skin in the game and will be called upon to stop the disinvestment of higher education.
Category: Student Aid
Senate Hearing on HEA
The Senate will be holding a hearing on the HEA this Wednesday entitled Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act: Exploring Barriers and Opportunities within Innovation. The hearing will be held at 10 am on Wednesday, July 22.
Senate Appropriations Committee Passes FY16 Labor-H
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
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.
Senate Subcommittee Passes FY16 Labor-H
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:
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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.
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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.
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Health Exchange Transparency – Bill language is included requiring the administration to publish ACA-related spending by category since the Act’s inception.
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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.