Countering the Republican efforts to assist students that were included in the “Phase 3” bill, Senate Democrats released a summary of their own proposal on the issue. The legislative text for the plan has not yet been released.
The summary of the plan, as prepared by the Democratic staff, is here and a press release about the proposal is here.
Again, while the legislative text is not yet available, the centerpiece of the plan is the federal repayment of student loans during the COVID-19 crisis.
Yesterday, the broader higher education community sent to Congress a series of recommendations and requests for assistance aimed at stabilizing the entire enterprise as it tries to cope with COVID-19. The requests fall into a number of distinct categories:
The details of the President’s FY2021 budget requests for various agencies of interest to UW are not pretty. Let’s start with some of the details related student aid and higher education programs at the Education Department.
Programs Slated for Elimination
Other Education Department Proposals
Student Loans
Institution of Education Sciences
The Administration proposes to cut IES by $58 million below the FY2020 level to $565 million for FY2021. Within its budget, it is calling for the elimination of both the Regional Education Laboratories and the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems.
At a conference in Reno, NV the Department of Education revealed that they are considering some significant changes to student financial aid. The first is that they would give colleges the authority to limit how much debt a student takes on. This would be done at “experimental” college sites. They claim this would shift some of the burden from the federal government onto colleges. Additionally, they are proposing changes which would allow debt to be converted into an income-share agreement or other private, third-party mechanism. A student could potentially end up owing a percentage of future earnings to a third-party, rather than directly to the Department of Education. They also want to introduce “incentives” for students who progress quickly through their program. While the specifics are still murky, we will continue to monitor the situation.
Remember the two-year spending agreement that was reached earlier this summer that increased the budget caps for both FY2020 and FY2021? Well, that seems like a distant memory at this point. When the agreement was reached, there were hopes that the FY2020 appropriations process would turn into a relatively smooth one. Fast forward to today and we are now 11 days away from the start of FY2020 and none of the 12 spending bills have been signed into law.
To try to prevent another shutdown like the one that marked the beginning of FY2019, the House took up and passed yesterday a continuing resolution (CR) that would keep the government funded through November 21. The Senate is expected to take it up next week. There was even uncertainty about the fate of the CR, with the biggest holdup being House Democratic appropriations leadership’s misgivings about adding funds for subsidies to farmers impacted by the tariff fight with China. Ultimately, enough of the concerns were addressed for floor action and passage.
In the Senate, with the hopes of a quick appropriations process dashed, appropriators are making progress where they can. The full Appropriations Committee cleared three bills yesterday in a bipartisan manner: Agriculture, Transportation-Housing, and Financial Services- General Government. However, significant hurdles remain. There still are differences between the two sides about the Administration’s attempts to move funds from other bills to build a wall on the Southern border. Related to the wall push is the Democrats’ unhappiness about the “302(b)” allocations to the subcommittees, especially to the Labor-HHS subcommittee for its bill. While the Labor-HHS-Education bill and the accompanying report have finally been released, the legislation has not yet moved due to Democratic objections on funding and Republican protests related to abortion policy.
The current version of the Senate Labor-HHS-Education bill would increase funding for NIH by $3 billion. In addition, while the legislation would increase the Pell Grant maximum to $6,330, it would level fund the majority of the other student financial aid and higher education programs of most interest, including:
The bill would also provide $100 million to federal student loan borrowers who would otherwise be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program except for the fact that they unknowingly made payments to ineligible repayment plans. This amount would be combined with unobligated balances for similar efforts from prior years.
Stay tuned for further updates.