University Business - August 2006 - (Page 30)

ON THE HILL Politics Control Legislation Outlook With Congress having other priorities these days, the HEA reauthorization and the Pell Grant increase could fail. By Alan Dessoff T extensive new regulatory provisions that H E HEAT OF POLITICS, would impose additional reporting re- combined with the humid heat quirements on colleges and universities. of a Washington, D.C., summer, On the other hand, if the new Con- is putting a damper on the progress of gress to be elected in November turns out legislation in Congress that is important to be as partisan as the current one, we to the higher education community. could have a new set of problems next Reauthorization of the Higher Educa- year, as one lobbyist puts it. tion Act is the most significant measure S i g n i f i c a n t l y, House Republicans remaining, and chances appear to be 50- are not asking higher ed organizations 50 at best that it will happen before the in Washington to get behind Senate ap- 109th Congress fades into history this fall, proval of reauthorization. Usually, if one says Terry Hartle, senior vice president chamber has passed a bill and wants the for Government and Public Affairs at the other to act on it, organizations with an American Council on Education ACE . House Republicans aren't interest in the legislation will be encour- Higher ed advocates in the capital aged to mobilize their members to pres- also have an interest in a bill approved asking Washington's higher sure the other chamber to act. That has by a House subcommittee for a modest ed organizations to get not happened with HEA and, says Hartle, $100 increase in Pell Grants, but politics Congress is running out of time. also might get in the way of its passage behind Senate approval of this year. reauthorization. PELL GRANT UPDATE While these measures are important Also likely to be lost this year is a $100 to the higher ed community, they pale in increase approved by a House appropria- included $12.7 billion in student loan comparison to issues like the war in Iraq tions subcommittee in the maximum cuts were part of the Deficit Reduc- and immigration that are dominating the Pell Grant award for the 2007 fiscal tion Act that Congress enacted early in political agenda in the nation's capital. year from $4,050 to $4,150. It would the year. No essential HEA components With midterm elections coming up in be the first increase in five years. remain. The programs work and there November, incumbents in both parties are It's a small increase, but any increase is nothing that absolutely, positively has wary of bringing up anything for a vote is welcome, says Hartle. Keeping it will to be fixed, says Hartle. If Congress fails that might give an edge to their political be a big priority for us. to act, it probably will simply extend the foes in the bitterly divisive Congress. Still, the outlook for approval by the current higher ed law into next year and full House, then the Senate, and then fi- leave it to the next Congress to consider, HEA ACTION IRRELEVANT? nally a conference committee of the two Hartle says. HEA, which was passed by the House in bodies seems dim, again for political rea- There are two mindsets on the issue March, is stuck in the Senate and the sons as well as the calendar. It's hard for among higher ed lobbyists. One is that closer we get to the elections, the more Congress to vote on matters involving the current law probably is better for col- political considerations start to enter into funding for education and health right leges and universities than whatever is the calculation of what comes to the Sen- before an election, Hartle explains. likely to emerge from any reauthorization ate floor, and when, Hartle points out. bill this year. These lobbyists point out A c t u a l l y, it doesn't matter much that both the House bill that has passed whether the Senate acts on the bill or Alan Dessoff, a former reporter for The Washing- and the pending Senate version contain not. The guts of reauthorization which ton Post, is a Bethesda, Md.-based freelance writer. 30 | August 2006 universitybusiness.com OTH.indd 30 7/21/06 12:48:09 PM http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - August 2006

Contents
College Index
Advisory Board
Company Index
Editor's Note
People Watch
Sense of Place
Stats Watch
Viewpoint
Financial Aid
On the Hill
Admissions
Future Shock
An Education in AV Technology
Retention Intentions
Endowment Management
Good Data In, Good Data Out
Sticking with the Tried & True
Home, Sweet Home
Faculty Issues in Online Education
Internet Technology
What's New
Calendar of Events
Direct Connect
End Note

University Business - August 2006