Higher-Education Legislation Is Among Congress's Unfinished Business

Article tools

Printer friendly	E-mail article	Subscribe	Order reprints
	Discuss any Chronicle article in our forums
Latest Headlines If Kent State Beats Goals, Professors Will Profit The university will offer cash bonuses to professors when institutional goals for fund raising, research dollars, and student retention are met. Hurricane Gustav's Toll Is Mostly Psychological McCain Presses Fight Against Earmarks in His Speech Students and Professors Help Convention Speakers Connect Video: 'I Support John McCain' Congress Demands More Accountability of Colleges Broad Institute's Founders Will Raise Their Gifts by $400-Million Update on Billion-Dollar Campaigns at 28 Universities Institution Does Its Research Roadside Commentary Race on the Occoquan: a President's Second Freshman Year

By JEFFREY BRAINARD, KELLY FIELD, and SARA HEBEL

As Congress heads home for its Fourth of July recess this week, lawmakers are running out of time to wrap up their work on policy and spending bills important to colleges before the presidential campaign season kicks into high gear later this summer.

Congress's unfinished business includes legislation to renew the Higher Education Act, the major law that governs student aid. An update to the law is already five years overdue, but aides to the members who are hashing out key differences between House and Senate versions of a reauthorization bill say they still expect that this will be the year the renewal does get done, with final votes on a compromise measure now projected to occur this summer.

On another front, legislators are just beginning work on the 13 spending bills that set federal appropriations for the 2009 fiscal year, including those that finance student aid, research, and other education programs. It is probable, however, that Congress will delay final action on at least some of those bills until after the election in the hope of circumventing a showdown with President Bush, who threatened to veto measures that contain higher levels of spending than he proposed in February.

Among other legislation that was up in the air as members left for their holiday break was a bill to extend a number of tax breaks that expired last year or that are set to expire this year. Those include tax benefits that have allowed families to deduct from their taxable income up to $4,000 in tuition and related expenses; allowed people to make charitable contributions, including to colleges, from their individual retirement accounts without having to pay taxes; and provided businesses with a tax credit for research and development. The legislation has passed the House, but negotiations over the measure were continuing into late last week in the Senate, where the bill has encountered opposition from Republicans.

Meanwhile, lawmakers were moving last week toward final passage of a war-spending bill that would significantly expand tuition benefits for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The measure, which President Bush has said he will sign, also would provide $400-million in new money for scientific research this year and reverse all layoffs at federal energy laboratories, ensuring continued access by academic scientists for their studies.

After lawmakers return from their break in early July there will be only seven weeks before the Democratic convention convenes, on August 25, with the Republican convention following the week after that. Those events kick off the heart of the political-campaign season, during which Congressional activity typically grinds to a near halt while many members return home to seek votes for their own re-elections and to drum up support for their party's presidential nominee.

Here's a more-detailed look at the specifics of, and prospects for, several bills important to higher education:

Higher-Education Act

Congressional aides at work on a compromise bill reached tentative agreements on several sections of the measure in May, including those on creating college-cost watch lists, giving Congress more oversight of college accreditation, and requiring institutions to develop plans to prevent illegal downloading of music and videos on campus.

But negotiators have been stuck on resolving other key differences between the House and Senate versions, including whether to punish states that cut their higher-education budgets, whether publishers and colleges should have to disclose more information about textbook costs, and whether colleges should be required to notify students and employees within 30 minutes of an emergency.

Aides to legislators said last week that they were working on the final language of the 1,200-page bill and that it was likely that a compromise would be ready for the House and Senate floors for votes in July.

Spending Bills

Lawmakers and university lobbyists say they are resigned that this year's appropriations process may be especially long, unpredictable, and influenced by partisan calculations. Congressional Democrats have said they may hold off approving spending bills until after the November election and, if Sen. Barack Obama becomes president, until he takes office. That is because they prefer not to risk a deadlock with President Bush over federal spending levels for the second year in a row.

Nevertheless, legislators began to take action on several spending bills in June, including on the bill that finances Education Department programs and the National Institutes of Health, the largest source of money for academic research.

The House version of the bill, which passed an Appropriations subcommittee and was slated to be considered by the full Appropriations panel late last week, would provide enough money to increase the maximum Pell Grant by $169, to $4,900. It also would give the NIH a 4-percent, or $1.2-billion, increase.

The legislation would freeze funds for most federal student-aid programs at this year's levels but give small increases to TRIO programs for disadvantaged students and Gear Up, which helps low-income elementary and secondary students prepare for and attend college.

The bill does eliminate money for a controversial elementary-school program, Reading First, which came under severe criticism last year after its university-based consultants were accused of financial conflicts. Rep. David R. Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat who leads the House Appropriations Committee, said the money should be cut because "that program has been plagued with mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and cronyism" and had "no discernible impact on students' reading performance."

Over in the Senate, an Appropriations subcommittee passed its version of the spending bill last week, with the full committee expected to act on the legislation later in the same week.

In general, the Senate measure is slightly less generous to students and researchers than the House bill. The Senate version would increase the maximum Pell Grant by $69, to $4,800, and raise spending on the NIH by $1-billion.

Like the House bill, the Senate version would freeze money for most federal student-aid programs at this year's levels while giving some increases to TRIO and Gear Up programs. It also would eliminate funds for Reading First.

The Senate bill does provide for an increase that the House legislation does not include for the Perkins loan-forgiveness program. Under the Senate version, allocations for the program would rise by 11.3 percent, to $70-million, while the House version does not contain any increases for the program.

Veterans Benefits

Legislation was moving through Congress in June that would significantly expand tuition benefits for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The House passed the bill after reaching a compromise on the measure with President Bush, who had previously threatened to veto it. The Senate was expected to follow suit and pass the bill either late last week or soon after the recess.

The legislation includes about $162-billion to finance the two wars as well as funds for disaster recovery, including aid for Midwest flooding. The tuition benefits would allow veterans who have served in the military for at least three years since September 11, 2001, to receive up to the full cost of a four-year education at a public college, plus a monthly stipend for housing and money for books and supplies.

President Bush and other Republicans — including Sen. John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee for president — had opposed the educational provisions in previous versions of the bill because they feared that offering the benefits after three years of service would discourage service members from re-enlisting.

Under the compromise the president worked out with House members, legislators agreed to add a provision that would allow service members to transfer their educational benefits to their spouses and children. Service members could make such a transfer to their spouses only after having completed six years of service and committing to serving in the military for at least four more years. Benefits could be transferred to children only after a service member completed 10 years of service.

Senator McCain indicated that he now supports the provision expanding educational benefits for veterans since it includes the language on transferring benefits, and President Bush said he will sign the bill.

Of the $400-million the bill includes for science, $62.5-million would go to the Department of Energy's Office of Science to avoid the termination of government researchers and technicians at the agency's facilities, such as the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, in Illinois, where 59 workers have already accepted severance packages. University officials had lobbied to prevent those cutbacks, arguing that they would damage academic studies conducted there.

As for the remaining money, $150-million would go to the NIH and $62.5-million each would go to the National Science Foundation and NASA. The spending would be allocated for the current fiscal year.

The legislation also would triple spending this year for a program, the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarships, that trains undergraduates to teach mathematics and science in schools.