Brookings Panel Discusses Student Loan Programs & Expansion of Pell

May 26, 2009—Today, a panel of experts discussed the future of financial aid at a Brookings Institution Brown Center on Education Policy Event in Washington D.C. Deputy Undersecretary of Education Robert Shireman represented the Obama Administration and the Department of Education on the panel. Celia Sims (R-NC), legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), also was included on the panel. Sen. Burr is Co-Chair of the Senate Community College Caucus.

The discussion included the Obama Administration’s proposal to convert the federal loan programs into a single direct-lending program and use savings from taking these actions to support expansion of the Pell Grant program.

The panelists supported a simple, transparent and predictable financial-aid process and programs to encourage greater higher-education enrollments and completion.

The full panel included:

Moderator

• Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst
  Senior Fellow, Governance Studies

Panelists

• Robert Shireman
  Deputy Undersecretary, U.S. Department of Education
  
• Michael McPherson
  President, The Spencer Foundation
  
• Sandy Baum
  Senior Policy Analyst, College Board & Professor of Economics, Skidmore College
  
• Philip Day
  CEO and President, National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators
  
• Celia Sims
  Legislative Assistant, Office of U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC)

For more information, visit the Brookings Institution Web site.

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LAW E-Alert: Congress Returns From Break and More Changes

April 21, 2009—With the end of the spring district work period, Congress returns to finalize action on the FY2010 budget resolution. Congress is expected to split the funding differences between their respective bills, but the larger question is whether Congress will include budget-reconciliation language in regards to education, energy and health care. The budget reconciliation is not subject to a filibuster; therefore, it only requires a majority of the votes. If Congress includes budget-reconciliation language for education, this will pave the way for Congress to consider pushing the Pell Grant program into an entitlement and consolidate the federal-loans programs into a single federal-loan program. The budget resolution provides a rough outline of funding areas, though it does deal specifically with all the programmatic funding levels and does not require the President’s signature.

The House resolution provides $533 billion for non-defense discretionary funding, with $88.7 billion in discretionary funding for the Function 500 account for Education, Training, Employment, and Social Services. The Senate resolution provides $525 billion for non-defense discretionary funding, with $89.4 billion in discretionary funding for the Function 500 account for Education, Training, Employment, and Social Services. Both resolutions set a Pell Grant maximum level of $5,550 in FY2010 and include a deficit-neutral reserve fund to allow for Pell Grant increases in line with those proposed in President Obama's budget.

Congress is expected to finalize action in the next weeks. Meanwhile, the Administration is expected to release its full budget request for FY2010 the week of May 4th.

In other news, the Administration continues to appoint individuals for various positions in the federal government. For more information on these nominations, go to http://www.acct.org/advocacy/latest/ Read more!