Weekly Rundown

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 15^th 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 50^th 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