July 27, 2010
The House passed H.R. 4899, the supplemental appropriations bill under suspension by a vote of 308-114.  This spending bill does not include funding for education jobs or funds to cover the Pell Grant shortfall.  This legislation now goes to President Obama for approval.

July 27, 2010
The Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee passed the FY 2011 spending bill, allocating $169.6 billion across departments.  The subcommittee did not address the Pell Grant shortfall as part of this spending bill.  The full committee will consider the legislation later this week.

July 22, 2010
The Senate passed H.R. 4899, the supplemental appropriations bill providing funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and disaster relief.  The Senate rejected adding additional spending for education jobs and the Pell Grant shortfall.  For more information, please see AASCU’s advisory released last week.  The House will vote on the measure on July 27.

July 15, 2010
The Labor, Health, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee passed the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. In total, the bill provides $176.4 billion in discretionary spending across Departments, which is $1.5 billion below the President's request for FY 2011. The bill does not assume passage of the supplemental appropriations bill in the Senate, and therefore appropriates $5.7 billion to cover the shortfall in the Pell Grant program. This bill awaits action in the full committee.

July 11, 2010
Governor Joe Manchin (WV), chair of the National Governors Association (NGA), announced NGA's chair's initiative--Complete to Compete. The Complete to Compete initiative will focus on increasing the number of students completing college degrees and improving productivity at institutions of higher education. For more information, please see NGA's release .

July 1, 2010
The House of Representatives passed the H.R. 4899, the supplemental appropriations bill. The House-passed version of this legislation includes $10 billion to save and create K-12 education jobs and $4.95 billion to pay for the shortfall in the Pell Grant program. The bill awaits action in the Senate.

June 18, 2010
The Department of Education released the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on June 15 to improve integrity within the Title IV student aid programs. The NPRM seeks to clarify and make changes to provisions regarding gainful employment, credit hour, misrepresentation, incentive compensation, and state authorization. The full NPRM can be accessed here . Comments are due to the Department by August 2, 2010.

AASCU is preparing for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 2010. Please see AASCU's advisory about ESEA, including a link to President Howard's letter to the House Education and Labor Committee regarding this legislation.

On March 21, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4872, the The Health Care & Education Affordability Reconciliation Act. This bill will provide $36 billion over ten years for Pell Grants to address a significant funding shortfall as well as increase the maximum award from $5,550 to $5,975 by 2017. More information about the reconciliation bill can be found here . The Senate is expected to take up this legislation later this week.

On February 1, the President released his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2011. To learn more, please see AASCU's advisory providing an overview of the Dept of Education budget and the advisory regarding teacher preparation in the President's budget.

In his first State of the Union address, President Obama announced a number of proposals to increase access to college for middle class and low-income families. Please click here to read AASCU President Muriel Howard's full statement about the President's State of the Union address.

2009

The House passed HR 2847, the Jobs for Main Street Act, in December. This bill would provide $23 billion for an Education Jobs Fund and $300 million for Federal Work Study. The Senate is working on its own jobs package, the timing for which is uncertain. For more information, please click here.

The House and Senate passed the Omnibus Appropriations Conference Agreement, HR 3288, this weekend providing funding to the Department of Education for FY10. Please see AASCU's advisory for more details on higher education funding included in this appropriations bill.

House passes bill overhauling financial regulations, which includes language requiring certification of private student loans by colleges. AASCU has signed-on to a letter supporting this provision.

The Higher Education Opportunity Act, passed in the last Congress, contained Title X that placed requirements on schools and issuers of educational loans issued outside of the Federal Family Education Loan Program. Recently, the Federal Reserve posted draft regulations seeking public comment on extending the Truth in Lending Act to these loans. AASCU provided comments which can be viewed here.

On May 8, AASCU along with its sister education organizations signed a letter to Chairman Kennedy and Chairman Enzi in response to the Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan's request to allow the Department to waive Master Calendar rules.

On May 15, AASCU joined several other education organizations in sending a letter to both the House and Senate Appropriators encouraging continued support of federal higher education funding.

The House of Representatives and the Senate have each taken the first major step in the fiscal year 2010 budget process by passing resolutions in their respective chambers. To read more click here . President Obama recently released details on his FY 2010 budget. A summary on higher education funding can be found here.

The Congress has passed and the President has signed into law, the fiscal year 2009 omnibus appropriations bill. Read more

Latest on the Federal Stimulus Proposal. Read more