Senate Passes Higher Education Act Reauthorization Legislation
July 24, 2007
The Senate today unanimously
passed the Higher Education Amendments of 2007 (S. 1642), taking a
significant step toward reauthorizing the Higher Education Act of 1965,
which has languished in Congress since it was due for
renewal in September 2004.
The legislation includes some
major modifications in programs important to colleges and universities,
including raising the ceiling for the maximum Pell Grant to $6,300 and
increasing restrictions on the relationships between lenders, guarantee
agencies and institutions.
Among other key provisions, the
legislation
- Requires institutions to
disclose any plans they have for improving their academic
program.
- Defines the accrediting agency
standard on student achievement as success with respect to student
achievement in relation to institutional mission, “which may
include different standards for different institutions or
programs.”
- Calls for five House and five
Senate appointees—and five from the Secretary of
Education—to the Institutional Quality and Integrity Advisory
Committee.
- Prohibits the Department
of Education from establishing a national unit record database, although
it authorizes a pilot program for states and consortiums desiring to do so.
- Imposes new reporting
requirements in the areas of tuition and cost of attendance, and creates
a “Higher Education Price Increase Watch List” that would
rank institutions by a still-to-be-determined “price
index.”
- Requires institutions to
publish their policies regarding the transfer of academic
credit.
- Redesigns the Leveraging
Educational Partnership program to strengthen partnerships between the
states and institutions to bolster graduation and
persistence.
- Streamlines the application
process for requesting federal student aid.
- Asks the Advisory Committee on
Student Financial Aid to examine the regulatory burden imposed on
colleges and universities.
The Senate voted unanimously on
Tuesday to add a provision by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) as amended by
language developed by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) to ensure that
federal grant and student aid funds are not used to lobby the federal
government.
The original amendment would
have required institutions to submit an annual report to the Department
of Education to prove that no tuition funds or funds received from a
federal grant, loan, or contract “were used to hire a registered
lobbyist or to pay any person or entity for influencing or attempting to
influence” Congress or a federal agency.
The Kennedy-Coburn
compromise would prohibit colleges and universities from using federal
funds to pay any person to lobby a federal agency or Congress for
federal contracts, grants, loans, or cooperative agreements. It also
would prohibit colleges and universities from using federal student aid
funding to hire a registered lobbyist or any person or entity to secure
a federal earmark.
Other approved amendments
include proposals to create a federal student loan clearinghouse;
require teacher-preparation programs to set goals for increasing the
number of mathematics, science, and special education teachers; require
the Government Accountability Office to study the feasibility of
collecting information on the employment of college graduates; and
create a program of technology grants for minority-serving institutions.
In addition, senators agreed to authorize federal funds for 80 Upward
Bound programs that lost their grants this year, including 21 programs
at historically black colleges and universities.
At the last moment, an
amendment on peer-to-peer file sharing by Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was withdrawn. It would have given the
Secretary of Education authority to impose fines, including loss of
Title IV eligibility, on the 25 institutions said by the entertainment
industry to have the highest numbers of illegal downloads on their
campus computer networks.
In lieu of the Reid amendment,
language was inserted into the manager’s package by Kennedy that
asks campuses to disclose to students what their policy is on copyright
infringement and to make them aware of the consequences of illegal
downloading.
The Higher
Education Act of 1965 was created to strengthen the educational
resources of nation’s colleges and universities and to provide
financial assistance for students in postsecondary and higher education.
The legislation provides funding authorization for programs and
activities in four main categories: student financial aid, support
services to help students complete high school and enter and succeed in
postsecondary education, aid to strengthen institutions, and aid to
improve K-12 teacher training at postsecondary institutions.
Congress has
reauthorized HEA seven times. The current authorization expired on
Sept. 30, 2004 but has been extended multiple times in the past three
years while Congress dealt with other issues.
In the past
week, Congress has passed FY 2008 budget reconciliation legislation
as well as the long-delayed HEA reauthorization bill. The House and Senate passed different versions of budget
reconciliation that would cut subsidies for student loan lenders and use
the savings to increase grants to low income students. The
difference between the bills must be ironed out by a conference
committee of members from both chambers before the start of the new
federal fiscal year on Oct. 1.
With today's action, the Senate must now wait for the House
Committee on Education and Labor to take up HEA reauthorization,
which is expected sometime this fall.
Links to ACE letters on the
Senate bill:
Letter
to the Senate in Support of the Higher Education Amendments of 2007 (S.
1642) (PDF; 33 KB)
Letter
to the Senate Opposing the Coburn Amendment to the Higher Education
Amendments of 2007 (S. 1642) (PDF; 44 KB)
Letter
to the Senate Opposing the Durbin Textbook Amendment to the Higher
Education Amendments of 2007 (S. 1642) (PDF; 43 KB)
Letter
to the Senate Opposing the Reid Filesharing Amendment to the Higher
Education Amendments of 2007 (S. 1642) (PDF; 39 KB)
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