Government Relations Archive

The Maryland General Assembly adjourned sine die at midnight on April 9.

The FY 2008 Operating Budget included full funding for the Sellinger Grant Program. In total, the MICUA member institutions will receive an almost 18 percent increase in state aid over the FY 2007 appropriation. (The Sellinger funds per institution ultimately depend, though, on full-time equivalent enrollment for the Fall of 2006.)

The General Assembly cut the Governor’s allocation for the University of Maryland System and Morgan State University by approximately $2.2 million. The outcome of this is an increase in state aid for public universities of 6.7 percent. In the end, the state’s student financial aid programs saw a decrease of $1.2 million, leaving $110 million in remaining funds.

The four MICUA capital projects totaling $8 million were also approved.

The General Assembly failed to pass any legislation to deal with the state’s future structural budget. It was reported that the Governor plans to balance the budget using the state’s “rainy day” fund to pay for increases in education and health care, but no reserve funds will be available next year to correct the $1.5 billion structural deficit that is projected. Senate President Thomas Mike Miller is reported as saying that he believes next year’s budget will include cuts, tax increases, and slot machine revenues.

For additional information on the top legislative issues affecting independent colleges and universities in Maryland, visit the MICUA web site: http://www.micua.org/legaffairs.htm

In March, Representative Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX), chair of the House Education and Labor Subcommittee, kicked off a series of hearings on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA). The subcommittee plans to conduct a series of hearings with the hope of having a draft HEA bill by August. The goal is to go to conference with the Senate in the fall, and finalize the legislation by early 2008.

Senator Kennedy, Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee has vowed to mark-up its HEA legislation sometime this month. The Committee's bill is based on S. 1614 from the 109th Congress. He stated in February that “the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act is one of my highest priorities for the new session of Congress, and I plan to do all I can to enact worthwhile and bipartisan legislation in the coming months.”

In other higher education news, the Senate Budget Committee has approved a FY 2008 budget resolution that provides $9.2 billion more in education funding than the president proposed. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings appeared on Capitol Hill to defend the education cuts in the Bush administration’s FY 2008 budget before the House Labor-HHS-Education appropriations subcommittee. Chairman David Obey noted that the president’s budget is $6 billion below FY 2005 funding, or a 10 percent cut. Chairman Obey vowed to “significantly increase the budget for education this year.”

Negotiators continue to meet in Department of Education-sponsored meetings to consider regulations from statutory changes made to the Higher Education Reconciliation Act (HERA – the higher education portion of the Budget Reconciliation Act). The panel on student loan provisions met recently to examine draft regulations impacting the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), the Perkins Loan Program, and the Direct Loan Program. One issue that is being scrutinized is that of “preferred lender lists” at institutions of higher education.