New Congress Sworn In

On January 4, the 110th U.S. Congress was sworn in.  Both the House and the Senate are now under Democratic control.  California Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) was elected as the nation’s first female Speaker of the House.  Several California Democrats now chair House committees, including: Rep. George Miller (Vallejo), Education and Labor; Rep. Tom Lantos (San Mateo), Foreign Affairs; Rep. Henry Waxman (Los Angeles), Oversight and Government Reform; Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (Carson), House Administration; and Rep. Bob Filner (San Diego), Veterans' Affairs.  Additional California Democrats are in line to chair important subcommittees.  And three have been added to the powerful House Appropriations Committee; Reps. Barbara Lee (Oakland), Adam Schiff (Burbank) and Mike Honda (San Jose) will join Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard (Los Angeles) and Sam Farr (Carmel) as members of that panel. 

On the Republican side of the aisle, Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (Santa Clarita), is now Ranking Minority Member on Education and Labor; Rep. Jerry Lewis (Redlands) gave up the gavel on the Appropriations Committee but remains his party’s top member, while Rep. John Doolittle (Roseville) maintains his seat on that committee; Rep. Duncan Hunter (Alpine) has shifted from Chair to Ranking Member of Armed Services; and Rep. David Dreier (San Dimas) has moved to Ranking Minority on Rules.

California’s two Democratic Senators also have new leadership assignments.  Sen. Dianne Feinstein has taken the gavel of that body’s Rules and Administration Committee, and will chair the Interior subcommittee of the powerful Appropriations panel.  Sen. Barbara Boxer is the new chair of the Environment and Public Works committee, and will chair the Select Committee on Ethics temporarily, while Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) recovers from brain surgery.

House Dems Pass Student Loan Interest Cuts

The new House majority has undertaken an aggressive agenda for its “first 100 legislative hours” of 2007.  Early action items include several of particular interest to the higher education community, such as broadening stem cell research and enacting a series of lobbying and budgetary reforms that will affect earmarking and overall spending processes.  And on January 12, Rep. George Miller introduced HR 5, the College Student Relief Act of 2007. The bill, which passed the house on January 17, would reduce interest rates on federally subsidized student loans for undergraduates over the next five years, resulting in a cut from the current rate of 6.8% to 3.4% in 2011. The cost would primarily be borne by the nation’s largest lenders. While leading House Republicans are critical of the process by which the bill was sent to the House floor and have advocated adding to the measure to assist current students and to promote tuition accountability, many voted in favor of the legislation. The White House, while not directly threatening a veto should the bill also pass the Senate, has signaled its opposition to HR 5.  

Current Fiscal Year Remains Unresolved

During its lame duck session, the 109th Congress failed to complete work on nine of the eleven annual appropriations bills used to fund federal programs that began last October 1. Instead, the Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) to temporarily fund federal programs (except in defense and homeland security) through February 15 at prior year levels. This approach punted all final funding decisions to the new Congress. Concerned about the time it would take to finish work on so many bills and with the need to begin work shortly on the FY 08 budget, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Rep. David Obey (D-WI), new chairs of the Senate and House Appropriations committees, thereafter announced that instead of completing the unfinished FY 07 appropriations measures, they will work to pass a Joint Resolution early in 2007 that will in most cases continue to fund federal programs – including student aid and scientific research - at prior year (FY 06) levels for the rest of the fiscal year. They also announced a moratorium on earmarks – directed spending for home district projects – in the Joint Resolution. Thus any earmarks that had been put into prior House or Senate versions of FY 07 spending bills will fall by the wayside. Similarly, any programmatic funding increases contained in unfinished spending bills will likely be lost. It is possible that some of the money saved by eliminating earmarks and plus-ups will be used to increase funding in other programs – some have advocated a Pell grant increase, for example - but available dollars will be short. Byrd and Obey indicated that earmarks would return in FY 08, albeit under new rules requiring greater transparency.

Tucker Confirmed As Education Under Secretary

On December 11, the U.S. Senate confirmed Sara Martinez Tucker as Under Secretary of Education, giving her leadership on issues related to postsecondary and career education, and financial aid programs. Until recently, Tucker served as President and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. She also served as a member of Secretary Spellings’ Commission on the Future of Higher Education, and will now be charged with working to implement its recommendations. In a December interview with Inside Higher Ed, she cited improving the efficiency of federal student aid programs and increased alignment of high school and college curricula among her top priorities.