Home Government Relations & Public Policy President to President

• Health Care Debate Continues; Student Loan Reform Waiting in Wings
• Senate Rejects Appropriations Bill Amendment Prohibiting National Science Foundation Funding for Political Science Research
• House Approves University Amendment to Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act
• Federal Trade Commission Delays Enforcement of Red Flags Rule
• New England Board of Higher Education to Hold Forum on Common Core Standards
• ACE's 2010 Annual Meeting Presidents Day Activities

Health care reform continues to dominate the public policy agenda in Washington this week.

The House of Representatives plans to vote on its legislation this weekend. While most observers believe Democratic leaders do not yet have the necessary votes to pass the bill, they will certainly have them before bringing the measure to a vote.

Things are less certain in the Senate where Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has encountered two roadblocks. First, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has not finished "scoring" the bill—a step that provides the definitive cost estimate of the legislation. It is not clear when that will be completed. The second challenge—and a much bigger one—is that Democrats do not yet have the 60 votes they need to begin Senate consideration of the health care bill. Until they do, Republicans can, through a filibuster, prevent any debate on the bill.

Eventually, Sen. Reid and the Democrats are expected to work their way through both challenges.

Senate floor action is expected to take three weeks or more. If the Senate passes the bill under "regular order" (which requires 60 votes to block any filibusters), the legislation will then head to a conference with the bill approved by the House. Both bills are very long (almost 2,000 pages) and mind-numbingly complex. It is expected that any House-Senate conference (which will necessitate a "rescoring" of the legislation by the CBO) will take an additional three to four weeks. Only then can a bill be sent to the president for his approval.

The upshot is that there is a growing feeling in Washington that the time required for Senate action and a House-Senate conference, along with the approaching Thanksgiving and December holidays, means that health care reform may not be completed this year. Indeed, some observers now believe that a realistic date for final action on health care reform might be the president's State of the Union Address in late January.

All of this has big implications for the Student Financial Aid Reform Act (SAFRA). As you know, the House has already approved this measure, and we are waiting for Senate action.

Congressional Democrats always planned to consider student loan reform under an expedited parliamentary procedure called "reconciliation" that eliminates the possibility of a filibuster in the Senate and, therefore, requires only 50 votes for approval. The Democrats have reserved the option of adding health care reform to the student loan bill and considering both measures under the expedited procedure. They would prefer not to do so—indeed, the possibility of doing this is so controversial that it is commonly referred to as the "nuclear option." This means they will only take this step if they cannot get the 60 votes needed to force a final vote on the health care reform under regular order. And they cannot know whether they will have those votes until they are well along in consideration of the health care legislation.

The biggest implication for colleges and universities is that—assuming Congress approves the SAFRA legislation—all institutions will probably be required to use direct lending sometime next year, most likely on July 1, 2010. This will not provide much time for the Department of Education and institutions to implement the new law.

If you are currently a direct lending school, these debates will not affect your institution. However, if you are in the bank-based federal student loan program, you may be required to switch to the Direct Loan Program on fairly short notice. The Department of Education has advised schools that are in the bank-based loan program to take the preliminary steps now to facilitate a transition to direct lending.

I was pleased this week to welcome Bob Shireman, deputy under secretary for education, and Bill Taggart, chief operating officer for federal student aid, to our Washington Higher Education Secretariat meeting to further discuss the need for institutions to be fully prepared to make the move. Doing so will not require you to move to direct lending should Congress fail to approve the president's plan. However, taking some action now, which is well advised, will significantly facilitate a move to direct lending next year if such a step becomes necessary.

As you can tell from this brief discussion, we face a very complex political and policy environment with potentially big implications for many colleges and universities. We are, of course, following both bills closely and will keep you posted as developments warrant. While all the associations have slightly different views about the pluses and minuses of the student loan legislation, we are working very cooperatively to make sure that institutions, students and families continue to have access to a high-quality student loan program with attractive terms.

Yesterday, after several weeks of delay, the Senate completed its work on the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2010.

Most significantly for higher education, senators voted 62-36 to reject an amendment offered by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would prohibit the National Science Foundation (NSF) from funding any research in the field of political science. We sent a letter on Oct. 9 urging the Senate to vote down the amendment, which we believed was an unwarranted intrusion into research funding decisions made through the well-established peer-review process.

The Senate also began consideration of and will vote next week on the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act of 2010. Despite this brief spurt of Senate appropriations activity, the remaining bills, including the massive Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill, face significant challenges in the Senate and are likely to be wrapped into a minibus bill over the next several weeks.

The House will vote today on the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009 (H.R. 2868), a bill that would extend and modify the authority of the secretary of homeland security to regulate chemical facilities nationwide, including college and university laboratories.

As many of you will remember, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriation Act of 2007 authorized DHS to regulate chemical facilities, but that authority expires later this year. We are up against the same concerns in H.R. 2868 that we had with the 2007 bill—namely, that it fails to recognize the differences between academic laboratories and major chemical manufacturing and production facilities, including how chemicals are used and stored for research purposes.

During debate on the bill, an amendment by Reps. Bill Foster (D-IL) and Ben Luján (D-NM) was adopted which recognizes the distinction. The amendment achieves the important goal of securing chemical facilities by establishing separate but still robust standards, protocols and procedures for assessing vulnerabilities and improving the security of "chemicals of interest" in a college or university setting. We sent a community letter expressing our strong support for the amendment, as well as our commitment to the safe conduct of research and education on our campuses, and I am please that our letter was cited on the floor as a justification for approving the amendment.

I will update you next week on the final vote.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this week announced another delay in the enforcement of the new Red Flags Rule that requires many organizations to implement a written identity theft prevention program designed to detect the warning signs (or "red flags") of identity theft in their day-to-day operations.

Enforcement of the rule will now begin June 1, 2010.

The FTC has designed a web site to help you determine if you are covered by the new regulation and if so, what to do about it. The relevant information also is available as a free PDF on the FTC web site.

I encourage you, or a member of your senior staff, to attend the Dec. 7 New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) forum in Worcester, MA, on the new Common Core State Standards Initiative.

ACE is partnering with NEBHE on this event as part of our ongoing effort to help ensure that these new national college- and career-ready standards meet their potential to improve students' readiness for success in college. Forty-eight governors have now signed on to the effort to create common college-ready standards for K-12 education, and states will be rushing to adopt these new standards early next year in order to qualify for more than $4 billion in federal stimulus funds.

Details are available at www.nebhe.org/core.

Finally this week, please plan to join your colleagues at ACE's 92nd Annual Meeting to explore how we can keep higher education at the top of our nation's agenda.

Be sure to attend the following exclusive events designed especially for presidents and chancellors, beginning with a special reception on Saturday, March 6. Other events include:

• A Changing Landscape. William G. Bowen, president emeritus of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and of Princeton University, will discuss how "the shape of the river" has changed, with a renewed emphasis on learning and attainment and heightened concerns over price and costs.
• Federal Relations Update. Senior Vice President Terry Hartle and I will offer an overview of activities in Washington, DC, that affect your campus.
• A Briefing for New Presidents. Meet colleagues, learn about ACE's programs and services, and find out how to become more involved with the organization.
• A Session for Presidential Spouses and Partners. This is an opportunity to discuss issues faced by partners of academic leaders.
• Council of Fellows Seminar. Current and former ACE Fellows will host this annual event.
• Twitter, Social Networking and Higher Education. Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Twitter, will discuss the phenomenon of social networking and how it will continue to impact your campus.

ACE's Commission meetings will be held on Sunday, March 7. Commissions provide an opportunity for presidents and chancellors to work with ACE on various mission-related issues and help guide the organization in initiating new programs and policies. Learn more and find out how you can get involved. Also, we have confirmed Jim Collins, author of How the Mighty Fall and Good to Great and co-author of Built to Last, to speak on Monday, March 8.

Register early and save. In recognition of the economic issues facing our campuses, we are keeping registration costs for ACE's 2010 Annual Meeting at the 2009 rates.

Molly Corbett Broad
President of ACE