9/26/17 Higher Education Update: HEA Reauthorization, Perkins Extension, Federal Regulation Review and Borrower Defense.

Higher Education Reauthorization: This fall the House Education and the Workforce committee is expected to introduce its long awaited bill to reauthorize HEA. It is expected that the proposal will consolidate several different grant, loan, and other student aid programs to place an emphasis on workforce preparedness.

The emphasis on workforce preparedness could manifest itself in a couple of different proposals being talked about by Chairwoman Foxx and others...

Deregulation Hearings and ED Task Force: Today the Department held its first of two hearings to solicit public feedback on higher education regulations. This complements two other initiatives undertaken this summer to examine areas for deregulations...

Perkins Extension: Congress has until September 30th to pass a reauthorization of the Perkins Loan Program before it expires. Bi-partisan measures are working their way through the House and the Senate, with 220 cosponsors on the House bill alone, though neither bill currently has floor time. While there is strong support for the extension, Congress had been hoping to re-examine the underlying program before it expired as part of its efforts to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA). Two years ago legislators missed a deadline to extend the program before they ultimately reauthorized it three months later...

9/25/17: Department of Education Grant Priorities

Competitive Grant Priorities: The Department of Education has started the process for setting competitive priorities that they can use across all of the Department’s discretionary grant programs. Right now there are no official details on what the content will be. What the notice process does is allow the Department to adopt a slate of priorities that will be essentially “pre-approved” for use in future grant competitions. This will make it easier and faster for the Secretary to modify priorities in future grant competitions, as she will be able to select from a menu of priority options that have gone through the public notice process when issuing a RFP...

9/12/17: Senate LHHS FY18 Appropriations

Highlights from Senate LHHS Bill

• Minority Serving Institutions: AANAPISI: $3,348,000
• Strengthening Institutions: $86,534,000
• Pell Grants: 1.7% increase in maximum award, from $5920 to $6020; Continues year-round Pell; rescinds $2.6B of unobligated fund balances from Pell program
• Federal work study: $989,728,000
• ...

Noteworthy policy proposals include:

• Mental Health First Aid.—The Committee is pleased with the progress of Mental Health First Aid. In issuing new competitive funding opportunities SAMHSA is directed to include as eligible grantees local law enforcement agencies...
• The Department is encouraged to develop a nationally-recognized apprenticeship standard to enhance the skills and workforce opportunities for water utility related jobs.
• The Secretary is urged to find innovative ways to enhance workforce training capabilities in areas that ...