1/22/18: Grants Update ED

Today the Department of Education updated its grants forecaster for significant competition projections through the Office of Innovation and Improvement. This includes grants like...

1/16/18: Education Update

Executive Branch and Administration: On Friday the Supreme court decided to hear an appeal of South Dakota v Wayfair Inc concerning the collection of state and local sales tax from out of state retailers (primarily internet sales). ...

ESSA Implementation: On 1/10 the Department of Education issued a dear colleague letter to State Education Chiefs granting states more flexibility in the use of any remaining NCLB-era School Improvement Grant funds. States may now use such funds in ways that are compliant with either NCLB or ESSA.

1/16/18: Immigration, appropriations, heading towards deadline

We have a whirlwind week ahead of us in DC as Congress moves towards a budget deadline on the 19th. Below is a quick rundown on where key negotiations stand after a turbulent first week back.

Appropriations and budget deadline: Congress must pass an appropriations bill, and have it signed by President Trump, by 1/19...

DACA and Immigration:Meanwhile, last week House Republicans introduced a partisan conservative immigration reform package called the “Securing America’s Future Act”.  The bill tackles dozens of areas of immigration policy, including: an overall 25% reduction in immigration levels, authorizes a border wall, authorizes the DOJ to withhold law enforcement grants from sanctuary cities...

Running on a parallel track, on Saturday (1/13) the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that until further notice DACA “will be operated on the terms in place before it was rescinded”. This is in accordance with the terms of a federal court order granted last week that requires DACA to remain in place until a court challenge proceeds...

1/11/18: What is happening with earmarks?

In the past 24 hours there has been considerable speculation about bringing back Congressionally Directed Spending requests (aka earmarks) to the annual appropriations process. Earmarks were eliminated in 2011 when Republicans took control of the House after the 2010 elections.

This is what we know is going on...

1/9/18: Immigration Update

As I indicated in yesterday's update, today President Trump and Congressional leadership met to discuss immigration reform, including DACA. DACA is a key issue in budget negotiations for FY18.

During the meeting, which, unusually, was partially televised, the White House says that Congressional leaders (Republican and Democrat) tentatively agreed to try and address four topics in subsequent negotiations: 

1. Border security 
2. DACA
3. Chain migration (sponsoring relatives)
4. The visa lottery

President Trump suggested...