Tag Archives: Congress

New Chair of U.S. House Subcommittee on Higher Education Announced

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Yesterday, U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) announced that she will chair the higher education subcommittee.

Representative Foxx stated she was “excited to roll up my sleeves and work toward making our higher-education system even better while carefully stewarding taxpayer dollars.”

Representative Foxx also shared that she does not have an agenda yet but suggested she would not shield higher education prograrms from spending cuts and raised doubts regarding the need for community colleges to produce 5 million more graduates with degrees or certificates by 2020.

Representative Foxx was elected to Congress in 2004 after spending 10 years in the North Carolina Senate and several years as a professor and administrator at several North Carolina colleges. She also served as president of Mayland Community College in 1987.  She joined the education committee in Congress in 2005 and left in 2008 to serve on the rules committee.

New Leadership for U.S. House Education Committee

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The U.S. House of Representatives elected Rep. John Kline (R-MN) to chair the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee.

Rep. Kline has indictated that his priorities for the upcoming congressional session include:

  • Increasing oversight of education and workforce programs;
  • Reforming the nation’s education system to protect taxpayers, restore local control and empower parents;
  • Helping employers create new jobs; and
  • Improving training programs to get out-of-work Americans working again.

Candidate Pool Narrows in Washington’s Third U.S. Congressional District

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The Democratic candidate pool for the Office of Washington’s U.S. Representative for the Third District narrowed substantially this week. The Third Congressional District represents The Evergreen State College.

In a press release from the National Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, current Washington State Senator Craig Pridemore (D-Vancouver) cites the long state legislative session as an impediment to fundraising, setting him too far behind.

Three Democratic candidates are still in the running for this congressional seat. They include Denny Heck, Cheryl Crist,  and Maria Rodriguez-Salazar. In addition, four Republican candidates also remain active in the race for this seat. They include David Castillo, David Hendrick, Jaime Herrera, and Jon Russell.

Senator Pridemore issued the following statement with regard to his decision to drop out of the race for the Third Congressional District.

“I want to first of all thank all of the individuals and organizations who supported my campaign. I am so grateful to have earned your trust, and look forward to continued service in the State Senate. I am especially humbled by the endorsements of organizations and friends who have rallied in recent weeks, knowing that we left the session with a steep hill to climb. Thank you.

I regret the need to exit this race, but it is clear to me that the long session placed our campaign at a clear disadvantage. While I wish I had been able to focus on my campaign earlier, I am proud that my focus this winter was where it needed to be: addressing the real issues facing the working families and small businesses of Southwest Washington. I entered politics to excel at public service, not the other way around.

I also want to congratulate and offer my immediate and full endorsement to Denny Heck, who is now in the best position–and is the best candidate–to win the seat in November. Denny is a bright, hard working and authentic SW Washington leader and we need his broad experience working for us in Congress. I encourage my supporters to help him and Senator Patty Murray in their elections this November.”

Federal Legislation Introduced to Extend Education Stimulus Dollars

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On Wednesday, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) sponsored and introduced legislation that would create a $23 billion education jobs fund, modeled after the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) that was established in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The Keep Our Educators Working Act would be awarded to local educational agencies and public institutions of higher education for the support of early childhood, elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education. Funds would be used for compensation and benefits and other expenses necessary to retain existing employees, hiring new employees and on-the-job training activities for education-related careers.

The Act is introduced at time when many policymakers and education leaders are increasingly concerned about the upcoming 2011 fiscal year with regards to the steep drop in available funds once the billions of federal dollars made available over the last biennium run out.

Under the proposed legislation, the hope is that the extension of federal assistance to higher education and education will ward off budget cuts and tuition increases. The Act would provide each state’s governor with a formula-driven share of the $23 billion with which to replace any money that they have cut or will cut from their 2010 and 2011 budgets for elementary/secondary schools and public colleges and universities.

The intent is that each Governor will distribute the funds proportionally based on the amounts cut from the two sectors, but can “adjust” the amounts by up to 10 percent of the larger of the two totals. In addition, the money can only be used for “compensation and benefits and other expenses necessary to retain existing employees” or hire new ones, or for “on-the-job training activities” for “education-related careers”.  The money could not be used to supplant state funds in a way that restores or supplements “rainy day” funds or pays of debt.

Finally, the legislation would require states to sustain a level of education spending comparable to what they spent in 2006. Specifically, the bill requires governors to spend on both higher education and K-12 at least a comparable portion of their states’ revenues in 2010 as they spent in 2006, and a comparable portion in 2011 as they spent in 2009.

The bill has been deemed “emergency” legislation, allowing the money to come out of federal mandatory rather than annually appropriated funds. This means that the costs of the bill would not have to be offset by cuts in other programs.

While education and higher education leaders are thankful for the investment, it is unclear how much benefit institutions may derive form the legislation if passed because the bill only replaces funds that have been or will be cut from the public college budgets.  It also raises questions regarding the role of the state in supporting and investing in their own public education institutions.

The $23 billion request proposed in Harkin’s Keep our Educators Working Act of 2010 has also been introduced in the U.S. House as a part of a freestanding jobs bill Local Jobs for Americans Act (H.R. 4812).

U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee Holds Hearing on FY11 Budget Request

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Late this week, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education held a hearing on the Presidents FY11 budget request.  Senators reaffirmed their commitment to close any remaining funding gaps that remain in the Pell Grant Program.

“The Pell shortfall is another danger on the horizon,” stated U.S. Senator Harkin, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.