Please see the below from SASFAA's Legislative Relations Committee and National Council of Higher Education Resources.
Week of
October 26
·
This
week,
both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate are in session for legislative business.
However, neither chamber is expected to consider student financial aid-related
legislation. The House will hold its internal Republican election for a new
Speaker on Wednesday while the floor election will be held Thursday. The House
will also consider legislation to raise the nation’s debt ceiling limit prior
to November 3, 2015, as the federal government will not be able to meet most of
its obligations without such action.
·
On
Monday and Tuesday, all-day, the American Association of State Colleges
and Universities holds its 15th Annual Meeting in Austin, TX. The
meeting provides the opportunity for presidents and chancellors to examine
critical national issues facing campuses, provide leadership to meet those
challenges, and what is working on campuses across the nation. Among the
schedule’s highlights is an event celebrating the 50th anniversary
of the signing of the Higher Education Act (HEA) at Texas State University in
San Marcos, TX.
·
On
Monday at 2:00 p.m.,
the New Faculty Majority Foundation and the National Education Association host
a briefing entitled, “Overcoming Inequality in Higher Education” which will
include an excerpt from a new documentary on adjunct faculty working
conditions. A panel of adjunct faculty and students will explain how
legislators and policymakers can reverse the trend of contingent employment in
higher education, including through targeted legislation and the
reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.
·
On
Monday at 3:30 p.m.,
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chair of the Democratic Steering and
Outreach Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and other Democratic
senators hold a forum with college graduates and experts about improving
college affordability and tackling the student debt crisis. Participants
include: Rohit Chopra, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Jen
Mishory, Executive Director, Young Invincibles; Jess Sanchez,
first-generation college student and first-year teacher; Emily Best,
Farm Operations Manager, New Morning Farm; and Annie Wood, recent
college graduate. To watch a live video from the forum, click here.
·
On
Tuesday, all day,
the Bond Buyer hosts its Healthcare and
Higher Education Finance Conference in Providence, RI. The conference
is designed to assist healthcare finance professionals, senior-level
institutional finance professionals, investment bankers, analysts, and other
municipal market participants for an in-depth analysis of the state of
tax-exempt finance, the challenges and opportunities, and strategies to employ
to plan for a sustainable financial future. It is also designed to cover the
broad strokes of topics that are relevant to nonprofit institutions, as well as
two tracks focusing on the finer points germane to healthcare and higher
education finance.
·
On
Tuesday and Wednesday, all day, the Federal Reserve holds a two-day
meeting of its Federal Open Market Committee. As Chair Janet Yellen
has announced that the Fed would likely raise interest rates later this year,
observers will be anxiously waiting to see the Committee’s discussions and/or
actions on this matter. The minutes for each regularly scheduled meeting of the
Committee, which include a description of economic and financial conditions,
are made available three weeks after its policy decisions are posted in the
Federal Reserve Board’s Annual Report.
·
On
Tuesday at 10:00 a.m., the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on
Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education holds a hearing titled,
“Improving Career and Technical Education to Help Students Succeed in the
Workforce,” on rewriting the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education
Act. Witnesses will be announced at a later date.
·
On
Tuesday at 10:30 a.m., the Institute for College Access & Success
presents new national, state-by-state, and college-level findings about the
student debt of 2014 bachelor’s degree recipients, plus a first-time look at
10-year trends in debt at graduation by state. The report release will be
followed by a panel discussion entitled, “A Decade of Student Debt,” featuring
leading experts in higher education policy. The event will be moderated
by Doug Lederman, Editor and Co-founder, Inside
Higher Ed, and include panelists Rohit Chopra, Senior
Fellow, Center for American Progress; Tamara Draut, Vice
President of Policy and Research, Dēmos; Max Espinoza, Senior
Vice President, Education Programs and Policy, Scholarship America; and Kevin
James, Research Fellow, Center on Higher Education Reform,
American Enterprise Institute.
·
On
Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. and Thursday at 11:00 a.m., the U.S.
Department of Education hosts instructor-led, online training sessions titled,
“Protecting Student Information, Information Technology Best Business
Practices,” that will describe best practices for protecting student data at
institutions of higher education. The webinars will provide guidance on the
institutional responsibility to protect all Title IV federal student aid data,
identify various threats to data security, and describe how to minimize those
threats with a risk-based approach to building and implementing a security
plan. Attendees will be encouraged to use the information and resources
presented during the webinar to help build, validate, and improve security
controls. To register, visit the Federal Student Aid website.
·
On
Wednesday at 10:00 a.m., the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Committee holds a hearing on the nomination of Jessica Rosenworcel for a
second five-year term as commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC).
·
On
Wednesday at 7:00 p.m., Democratic Presidential Candidate Sen. Bernie
Sanders (I-VT) hosts a town hall meeting with students at George
Mason University, which will be live streamed at colleges and universities
across the country. During the event, Sen. Sanders is expected to focus on
issues facing students and young people including college affordability,
campaign finance reform, climate change, criminal justice reform, and income
inequality.
·
On
Thursday at 9:00 a.m., the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory
Reform, Commercial, and Antitrust Law holds a hearing on H.R. 3438, the Require
Evaluation Before Implementing Executive Wishlists Act, which would require
federal agencies to postpone the effective date of a high-impact rule pending
judicial review. Witnesses include: Tom Woods, President, Custom Woods
Homes on behalf of the National Association of Home Builders; Paul Noe,
Vice President for Public Policy, America Forest and Paper Association; Jeffrey
Bossert, Partner, Kirkland and Ellis; and Dr. William Funk, Robert
E. Jones Professor of Law, Lewis and Clark Law School.
·
On
Thursday at 1:00 p.m., Academic Impressions hosts a webcast entitled,
“Communicating Financial Aid and Affordability to Admitted Students.” This
online training walks through considerations for proactive and effective
financial aid communication during the narrow window of time between admittance
and enrollment. Included will be expert approaches from two diverse case-study
institutions and examples of impactful communication tactics.
·
On
Thursday at 3:00 p.m., the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) holds
a free webinar to provide an overview of the Request for Comment on Draft Rule
Amendments to MSRB Rule G-15 to require municipal securities dealers to
disclose the amount of the mark-up on retail customer confirmations for
specified principal transactions.
·
On
Friday at 10:00 a.m.,
the Brookings Institution hosts a panel discussion entitled, “Where Interest
Rates Will Be When the economy is (Finally) Healthy and Why it Matters.”
According to the event’s description, one of the many current mysteries in
monetary policy is what interest rate, in the long run, helps keep the U.S. at
full employment and stable prices, which is sometimes called the natural rate
of interest. Federal Reserve policymakers have marked down their estimates
in recent years, suggesting that they expect interest rates to be lower than
the post-World War II average for some time to come. The International Monetary
Fund also has noted a downward trend in interest rates. And some observers see
chronically low equilibrium interest rates as a worrisome symptom of ‘secular
stagnation.’ Panelists include: James Hamilton, Professor of Economics,
University of California San Diego; Ethan Harris, Co-head of Global
Economics Research, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research; Jan
Hatzius, Chief Economist of Global Investment Research, Goldman Sachs; Kenneth
West, John D. MacArthur and Ragnar Frisch Professor of Economics,
University of Wisconsin; John Williams, President and Chief Executive
Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; Thomas Laubach, Director
of Monetary Affairs, Federal Reserve Board; Anna Cieslak, Assistant
Professor, Duke University; and Maurice Obstfeld, Professor of
Economics, University of California, Berkeley.
·
On
Friday at 11:00 a.m.,
Education Secretary Arne Duncan visits Southwest Tennessee Community College in
Memphis during the college’s Heads
Up
open house and participates in a roundtable discussion.
Ron Gambill,
Chair
Legislative Relations Committee
