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News and updates

House Committee Moves on Student Loan Fix

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Today, the House Education and the Workforce Committee marked up and two measures on to improve college costs and data transparency. The committee modestly amended and approved HR 1911, the Smarter Solutions for Students Act by a vote of 24-13, which ran largely along party lines. The amended HR 1911 would peg interest rates on all federal student loans, except Perkins loans, to the 10-year Treasury note rate plus 2.5 percentage points for undergraduate loans with a cap of 8.5 percent and plus 4.5 percentage points for graduate loans with a cap of 10.5 percent. Interest rates would be calculated and reset yearly.

The committee also marked up and approved HR 1949, the Improving Postsecondary Education Data Act for Students (IPEDS Act). The legislation would create a committee under the Department of Education to conduct a study on the factors students and families want, need, and already consider when choosing a higher education institution. This committee has a year to issue recommendations to assist congressional efforts to reauthorize the Higher Education Act.

The Office of Federal Relations is closely tracking this legislation and continues to work on this issue.

For more information on HR 1911, the Smarter Solutions for Students Act.

For more information on HR 1949, the IPEDS Act.

Charting the student loan interest rate proposals

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As the Office of Federal Relations continues to track the proposals and progress made on legislation affecting the student loan interest rate, below is a chart highlighting the proposals to date and major proposals.

Options continue to multiply as the July 1 deadline raising the 3.4 percent interest rate to 6.4 percent is quickly approaching. Soon, colleges will begin originating loans for the fall semester not long afterward. Congressional insiders predict that if the rate is allowed to double, Congressional Republicans will likely lose their appetite for addressing the issue because students will not feel the impact immediately.

The many options, and the apparent disagreement among Senate Democrats and the White House, mean that the fate of any successful bill may rest on the House’s ability to pass a measure that will then be amended in the Senate. Further, it puts the Obama administration in the unusual position of being allied most closely with Congressional Republicans, making the some of the most unusual bedfellows.

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This Week in Congress

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TUESDAY, MAY 13th

Senate Appropriations
2014 APPROPRIATIONS: HOMELAND SECURITY
2:30 p.m., 138 Dirksen Bldg.
Subcommittee Hearing

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14th

Senate Appropriations
2014 APPROPRIATIONS: DEFENSE
10 a.m., SVC-117 Capitol Visitor Center
Subcommittee Hearing

2014 APPROPRIATIONS: ENERGY AND WATER
2:30 p.m., 192 Dirksen Bldg.
Subcommittee Hearing

2014 APPROPRIATIONS: LABOR, HHS, EDUCATION
2:30 p.m., 138 Dirksen Bldg.
Subcommittee Hearing

Senate Veterans’ Affairs
VETERAN BENEFITS LEGISLATION
10 a.m., 418 Russell Bldg.
Full Committee Hearing

THURSDAY, MAY 15th

Senate Appropriations
2014 APPROPRIATIONS: AGRICULTURE, RURAL, FDA
10 a.m., 124 Dirksen Bldg.
Subcommittee Hearing

2014 APPROPRIATIONS: COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE
10 a.m., 192 Dirksen Bldg.
11:15 a.m., SVC-217 Capitol Visitor Center
Subcommittee Hearing

Farm Bill goes to mark up

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Both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are working on the Farm Bill this week. The respective farm bills scheduled to be marked up in Senate Agriculture on Tuesday and House Agriculture on Wednesday. The draft House plan released on Friday would save a projected $39.7 billion over a decade through reductions to nutrition programs, farm and crop insurance, and conservation efforts. Like the Senate bill (S.10), it would eliminate yearly direct payments to farmers and shift financial risk management away from traditional subsidies to insurance-based alternatives.

The UW’s School of Environment and Forest Studies is impacted by the legislation’s Research (Title VII) and Forestry (Title VIII) titles. The Office of Federal Relations is monitoring the progress and changes of each bill as it goes through the legislative process.

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Appropriations, Sequestration, and Immigration

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The Senate is in session today at 2:00pm but there will be no votes today. The House will be back in session at noon Tuesday.

Appropriations: The House GOP plans to begin drafting their FY2014 spending bills to adhere to the roughly $967 billion spending cap set by recent budget law, which also reflects the sequester. The Senate Democrats, on the other hand, appear ready to ignore the sequester and instead mark up their FY2014 bills under a $1.058 trillion cap.

The House Appropriations Committee is expected to start the FY2014 process with two relatively non-controversial bills: Military Construction & Veterans Affairs and Defense. The Senate Appropriations Committee has not yet scheduled any FY2014 markups, but has a full slate of budget hearings planned with administration officials this week.

Sequestration:  The sequester was designed to be so bad that lawmakers would never allow it to happen. But it did happen and now many members of Congress are looking to protect their favorite federal programs from some or all of the effects of sequestration. After easing some pain for the FAA a couple of weeks ago, the shortlist for the next round of possible sequester saves includes cancer patients, medical researchers, hungry seniors, poor people, and pre-schoolers.

There are already more than a dozen pieces of stand-alone legislation introduced to address agencies, programs and accounts hit by sequestration. Whether any one proposal has a shot at becoming law requires a confluence of events. It needs bipartisan support and at least some semblance of a spending offset to cover the costs. And public outcry from the Americans across the country helps as well.

Here’s a small sample of other sequester fixes also waiting in the wings: Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) would exempt the NIH; Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) would ensure that civilian Pentagon employees who get furloughed don’t lose access to classified information; the New York delegation is trying to protect September 11th health and compensation programs; Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-MS) wants to prevent furloughs for members of the National Guard who work full time as uniformed civilians maintaining equipment; Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) hopes to save the TIGER transportation grant program; Reps. Betty McCollum (D-MN) and Tom Cole (R-OK) have a bill to exempt the Indian Health Service fund; Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Mark Udall (D-CO) are releasing a new version of legislation this week that would give agency heads more flexibility in how they implement the budget cuts.

We expect this sort of legislation to consume much of the public debate in Congress throughout the summer and fall.

Immigration: The Senate Judiciary Committee will resume their work on a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws (S 744) Tuesday and Thursday with members of the chamber’s so-called gang of eight focused on which of hundreds of amendments filed could be potential deal-breakers. The committee chairman has said he hopes to finish the markup before Congress breaks for Memorial Day recess in two weeks.