Happy Tuesday SASFAA,
On February 2nd, 2012, Executive Board Members from SASFAA, EASFAA, and the Tri-State (DC-DE-MD) regions met on Capitol Hill to discuss financial aid issues affecting our community. EASFAA and Tri-State did this last year (2010-2011) and this being only the second year, invited SASFAA to participate in this event. Most of you will also remember that some of us participated in the Legislative Briefing on Capitol Hill back in October as well. At the October event, we invited members of Congressional offices to come hear us discuss important topics in financial aid.
A big thank you goes out to the EASFAA/Tri-State Federal Relations Chairs, Dawn Mosisa and Rachel Smith for their outstanding efforts in coordinating communication, invitations, and managing the appointments and group set-up with all of the Board attendees. NASFAA Staff also assisted in providing services and information for us to include in the debriefing document. It was certainly a joint-ASFAA effort! They also worked hard at creating a debriefing document that we used in our meetings and also dropped off to key Congressional members with which we did not have an appointment. These members were on the House Education/Labor Subcommittee and the Senate HELP Committee. We had in excess of 24 appointments with Congressional staffers and dropped over debriefing documents to over 35 offices.
Several attendees had the opportunity to sit in on a majority of the Senate HELP Committee's Hearing on Innovations in College Affordability. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC), Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA), and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) are on this committee. For those of you interested in watching this Senate Hearing, please do so at the following link:
http://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=2f5ce9b3-5056-9502-5d14-2428cbd01c06
The larger group was divided into 8 subgroups for the individual meetings. Brad's particular subgroup met with the Legislative Director and Legal Counsel for Congressman Bobby Scott (VA), Congressman Joe Wilson (SC) and his Deputy Chief of Staff/Legislative Director, and Education Counselor for Senator Bernie Sanders (VT). David Gelinas' group met with Celia Sims from Senator Richard Burr's staff, Simone Hardeman from Senator Kay Hagan's staff, and one other Congressional staffer. My group met with staff from Senator Orrin Hatch's (UT) office, Congresswoman Susan Davis (CA), and Congressman Trey Gowdy (SC). Thanks to Brad Barnett and David Gelinas for participating in this event.
Our meetings were very productive. We discussed such topics as the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet. College Scorecard, Pell and the EFC Formula, needed need analysis changes, loan interest rates, loan debt, private loans, financial literacy/education, Gainful Employment, employability of our students, and administrative burden.
One of the hot topics right now is the College Scorecard. You can find the scorecard at http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/scorecard. The administration is seeking feedback, so please take a few minutes to provide some on-line feedback.
As Brad indicated in a previous message, our main goal was to increase awareness and create relationships between ourselves, the Financial Aid Experts (that means all of YOU), and the Congressional staffers. We asked to remain a key player in these discussions and to allow us to be at the table when things need to be discussed.
Brad summed it up very well. I hope we can continue this effort in the future. Great job SASFAA!
Thanks for your support,
Amy Berrier
SASFAA Legislative Relations Chair
SASFAA Secretary
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