Advocate Online
From Capitol To Campus
At the outset
of the second session of the 108th Congress, it seems increasingly
unlikely that the Senate will have time to consider the reauthorization
of the Higher Education Act (HEA).
Although Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
plans for an “education week” in late March, during which
three major reauthorization bills would come to the Senate floor, the
HEA will probably not play much of a role. Two of the bills, Head Start
and special education legislation, are already well underway, but the
Senate has made almost no progress on the HEA reauthorization.
The only preliminary work so far has been
the introduction of a Democratic bill spearheaded by Senator Ted Kennedy
(D-MA) and a few hearings called by the Senate Health, Education, Labor,
and Pensions Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-NH). The Republicans have
not started writing a bill.
With limited legislative days on the calendar
due to presidential election activities, it seems highly unlikely that
the HEA bill will be ready by March. Some reports suggest that the Senate
will not take up any “new” legislation after mid-spring except
for must-pass spending bills and other politically critical bills.
In this event, consideration of the HEA
reauthorization would not begin until 2005, though the programs would
continue under the current law, which is technically extended every time
Congress passes a spending bill with funds for the individual programs
within HEA.
In the House, though some progress has
been made in passing a few pieces of HEA as separate bills, the major
issues, including student aid and rising college costs, remain open and
far from being resolved.
NEA members can keep up with the latest
developments on the reauthorization process on the NEA Higher Ed Web site
at www.nea.org/he.
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