Government Relations Archive

Just before the holidays, and after a veto of the education appropriations bill by President Bush and two omnibus bills that never moved, Congress finally passed H.R. 2764, the FY 2008 omnibus appropriations bill on December 19.

Congress had to cut $22 billion from its preferred spending level in order to move the bill and ensure that President Bush would sign it. To meet this goal, the bill makes a 1.7 percent across-the-board cut, which is applied to all programs and projects except for the Pell Grant program. The Pell Grant program is funded at $14.215 billion and with the funding from reconciliation, the total maximum grant increases to $4,731 – a new high.

Other student aid programs were cut and the funding levels are below:

SEOG (Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant) – $757.465 million
FWS (Federal Work Study) – $980.492 million
Perkins Cancellations – $64.327 million
LEAP – $63.852 million
TRIO – $828.178 million
GEAR UP – $303.423 million
Javits (Fellowship Program for study of the arts, humanities, and social sciences) – $9.530 million
GAANN (Graduate Assistance In Areas of National Need) – $29.542 million

These cuts signify level funding for TRIO and GEAR UP, a slight increase for FWS, and funding levels below last year for SEOG, Perkins, LEAP, and the graduate programs.

The reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) will be considered on the House floor sometime this month. The slowdown in floor consideration will, hopefully, mean further improvements to the bill for independent colleges and universities.

Unfortunately, Congress failed to renew the IRA charitable rollover and tuition deduction tax benefits which expired on December 31. According to House and Senate staff, the expiring provisions will be extended and made retroactive to January 1.

The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) has reported that colleges and accreditors have recently reached a compromise on language to propose to Congress. Representatives of both groups will now try to convince Congress to amend the House HEA reauthorization bill to include the compromise language.