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News and updates

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 Update

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The Senate’s inability to reach an amendment deal on a three-bill “minibus” could dash hopes for remaining FY 2015 spending bills. Though some Senate Republicans and Democrats say they want to find a way forward to debate fiscal 2015 spending bills, it’s not clear whether they can overcome the substantial distrust that scuttled this week’s attempt to advance the minibus combining three appropriations measures. Several Republicans and Democrats said that they still want to find a way forward, but it’s not clear whether that will be possible. The bill is technically still available for floor debate and Senate leaders had previously set aside next week to work on the package.

The floor setback in followed another blow to the Senate appropriations process on Wednesday night, when the Appropriations Committee postponed a markup of the traditionally bipartisan Energy-Water spending bill, the second such delay in a week. Last week, the panel delayed a planned markup of the more controversial Labor-HHS-Education measure. Appropriations Chairwoman Mikulski (D-MD) said she postponed the markup in consultation with other Democratic leaders because the White House was going to threaten to veto the Energy-Water measure because of a controversial amendment offered by the GOP to block the EPA’s recently announced carbon standards for existing power plants.

Meanwhile, the House is due to pass its fifth FY 2015 spending bill on today. The $570.4 billion Defense bill would increase some Pentagon funding and reverse war policies. House leaders have not settled on which spending bill they will take up after Defense. One option could be the $20.9 billion Agriculture bill that was pulled from the floor last week with GOP leaders focused on the election of a new majority leader and unable to whip against potentially divisive amendments. Another option for House leaders could be to take up their Energy-Water spending bill, which would allow Republicans an opportunity to attach provisions to block the new EPA carbon emission rules.

Whatever bill comes next, the House faces increasingly long odds in meeting appropriators’ goal of passing all twelve FY 2015 spending bills by the August recess – and it is certain that the Senate will be further behind in it’s appropriations work.

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.

FY15 Appropriations Update

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The unexpected primary election loss by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) could have repercussions on the FY15 appropriations process. Cantor will step down as Leader on July 31st and then serve the remainder of his term. The GOP will hold elections next week to determine who will succeed Cantor as Majority Leader, and that person may have a different opinion on how best to move forward – or not – with FY15 appropriations.

Cantor had been helpful to House appropriators by allowing them floor time with few restrictions on amendments so that they may advance their bills. This is due in large part because the current GOP leaders supported the December budget deal that established overall spending levels for FY15. However, if a more conservative leader emerges from the party’s right flank, which includes members who opposed the spending accord, the individual might have little interest and support for moving FY15 spending bills. Instead, the new leader may favor a continuing resolution (CR) that would keep current funding in place for FY15 and allow for new negotiations in the next Congress, when the GOP might control both the House and Senate.

Meanwhile, the Senate continues to move their FY15 spending bills through the process. Next week they hope to move a package of three largely non-controversial FY15 spending bills as part of a new strategy of clustering funding measures in an effort to save floor time and build bipartisan support. Commerce-Justice-Science, Transportation-HUD, and Agriculture are the three bills to be “clustered” next week.

Unfortunately, the Senate postponed further action on their Labor-HHS-Education measure yesterday. This tends to be the most controversial bill in the appropriations process because it funds many domestic programs that Republicans do not support.

While it is still too early to know for sure, it is looking more and more likely that Congress will approve a CR sometime before the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30th. They will then recess until after the mid-term elections and then return to DC for a lame duck session to complete the FY15 appropriations process – the fate of which will depend on the outcome of the November elections.

Student Loan Bill Fails in Senate

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The Senate failed to invoke cloture this morning and will not move forward on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) bill to refinance student debt. The Senate voted of 56-38, which is less than the 2/3rds required to move forward.