Below is RAMC’s weekly Washington Wrap Up from Wednesday. Find out more about Wrap Up and other RAMC resources here.

June 26, 2024

CONGRESS
Staff of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) held a virtual briefing to discuss their Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) discussion draft. The briefing highlighted changes to WIOA that would be made by the draft and the Committee’s policy priorities. Feedback on the discussion draft should be sent to wioa@help.senate.gov by Friday, July 5 at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) announced that the Senate plans to begin its markup of fiscal year (FY) 2025 appropriations bills after the Fourth of July recess.

Chair Murray published a fact sheet regarding the impacts last summer’s debt ceiling deal will have on the FY 2025 budget.

ADMINISTRATION
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) shared that it expects processing of 2024-25 paper FAFSA forms and the ability for schools to submit corrections electronically by entering the data manually via the FAFSA Partner Portal to be available by the end of June. ED also stated that batch institutional corrections for FAFSA purposes will not be available until the first half of August.

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) reached resolution agreements with the University of Michigan, the City University of New York (CUNY) and Lafayette College regarding steps the institutions must take to meet compliance with Title VI of the of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In addition to the four States in which a Federal judge in Louisiana blocked the Biden Administration’s Title IX rule last Friday, a District judge in Kentucky ordered a preliminary injunction on the rule in an additional six States. Until the courts reach a decision on the matter, the rule is not in effect in the States of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Idaho and West Virginia.

The following three ED regulations have been sent to the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review prior to their publication in the Federal register as proposed rules: distance education, return of Title IV funds and TRIO.

The regulations proposed by the U.S. Department of Labor regarding the National Apprenticeship System Enhancements are currently under their second round of review by OIRA. Once this review has been completed, they will be published as a final rule in the Federal Register.

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES
Penn Hill Group provides a list of grant opportunities and summaries for select grants. Please visit our website for more information.

Education News Headlines
[Click on the link to read the article online]

Parts of student debt forgiveness plan halted: What you need to know [The Hill]

Title IX Legal Challenges Target LGBTQ+ Protections [Inside Higher Ed]

Salaries for full-time faculty tick up 0.4% after inflation, AAUP finds [Higher Ed Dive]

FAFSA Fiasco Pushes States to Mandate Universal Completion [Inside Higher Ed]

More colleges are breaching their debt requirements: S&P [Higher Ed Dive]

Courts block parts of Biden student loan repayment plan [The Hill]

‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ on FAFSA [Inside Higher Ed]

Louisiana’s 2 New Free-Expression Laws Target Colleges. They’re Raising Lots of Questions. [The Chronicle of Higher Education]

3 Columbia University Administrators Put On Leave Over Alleged Text Exchange [Politico]

Murky Guidelines on Using AI Recording Devices in Classrooms [Inside Higher Ed]

Amid the Israel-Hamas War, Colleges’ Responses Were All Over the Map [The Chronicle of Higher Education]

Trump Says He Would Give Green Cards to All Foreign College Students at Graduation [The New York Times]

Florida Argues It Could Stop Professors From Criticizing Governor [Inside Higher Ed]

Union Institute & University to close [Higher Ed Dive]

Survey: Most Students Approve of Education Quality, Climate [Inside Higher Ed]

Title IX rule blocked in 6 more states [Higher Ed Dive]

California Bill Would Prevent AI Replacement of Community College Faculty [Inside Higher Ed]

Committee News and Schedule, Schedule for House and Senate Floor:

Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

Press Release: Ranking Member Cassidy on Federal Court Blocking Biden’s Student Loan Scheme to Shift $559 Billion in Student Debt Onto Taxpayers

House Committee on Education and the Workforce

Press Release: Foxx Investigating George Mason University’s Inaction Regarding Professor’s Misconduct, Sexual Harassment Allegations

Press Release: What People Are Saying: Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act

Press Release: Committee on Education and the Workforce To Host A.I. in Education Showcase

Press Release: New Government Watchdog Report on Sexual Harassment and Violence in College Athletics

Press Release: Scott, Hirono, Murray, Reed, Whitehouse, Pocan Introduce Bill to Double Pell Grant, Make College More Affordable

Press Release: Chair Kiley to Hold Hearing to Combat Workplace Antisemitism in Postsecondary Education

June 26: Subcommittee Hearing on “Combating Workplace Antisemitism in Postsecondary Education: Protecting Employees from Discrimination”

Witnesses: TBA

2175 Rayburn and via YouTube

10:15 a.m. ET

House Committee on Appropriations

Press Release: Committee Releases FY25 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act

Press Release: House Republicans Try to Eliminate Public Education that Makes the American Dream Possible, Harms Women and Children

June 27: Subcommittee Mark Up of “FY25 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Act”

2358-C Rayburn House Office Building

8:00 a.m. ET

House Committee on the Budget

Press Release: Via Forbes: CBO: Cost of Federal Student Loans Nears $400 Billion

House Committee on Ways and Means

Press Release: Six Key Moments: Hearing on Antisemitism on College Campuses

U.S. Department of Education and the Administration

White House Press Release: Readout of White House Meeting on Expanding Access to Free Community College

ED Press Release: U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Announces Resolution of Complaint Against Lafayette College Alleging Antisemitic Discrimination

ED Press Release: Biden-Harris Administration Awards More Than $44 Million to Improve Postsecondary Education Access and Completion for Rural Students

ED Press Release: U.S. Secretary of Education to Travel to New York With U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan to Uplift Career Pathways Programs and Community Colleges

ED Blog: Implementing the Joint Consolidation Loan Separation Act

GAO Report: Sexual Harassment and Violence: Efforts to Help College Athletes

IES Press Release: Virtual Office Hours for Statistical and Research Methodology in Education and From Seedlings to Scale Grant Programs

IES Press Release: IES Releases Two New Requests for Applications to Create Scalable Solutions to Education Challenges

Legislative Movement in Congress:

H.J.Res.165 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)

Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Education relating to “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance”.

Sponsor: Miller, Mary E. [Rep.-R-IL-15] (Introduced 06/05/2024) Cosponsors: (72)

Committees: House – Education and the Workforce

Latest Action: House – 06/25/2024 Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 461. (All Actions)

H.R.8807 — To improve the structure of the Federal Pell Grant program, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Pocan, Mark [Rep.-D-WI-2] (Introduced 06/21/2024) Cosponsors: (29)

Committees: House – Education and the Workforce; Budget

Latest Action: House – 06/21/2024 Referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and in addition to the Committee on the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

S.4595 — A bill to improve the structure of the Federal Pell Grant program, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Hirono, Mazie K. [Sen.-D-HI] (Introduced 06/20/2024) Cosponsors: (32)

Committees: Senate – Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

Latest Action: Senate – 06/20/2024 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Press Release: Hirono, Murray, Reed, Whitehouse, Pocan, Scott Introduce Bill to Double Pell Grant, Make College More Affordable

S.4580 — A bill to establish, improve, or expand high-quality workforce development programs at community colleges, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Warnock, Raphael G. [Sen.-D-GA] (Introduced 06/18/2024) Cosponsors: (1)

Committees: Senate – Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

Latest Action: Senate – 06/18/2024 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Press Release: Senators Reverend Warnock, Braun Leads Bipartisan Legislation to Move Georgians into Good-Paying Jobs

S.4565 — A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for institutional ineligibility based on low cohort repayment rates and to require risk-sharing payments of institutions of higher education.

Sponsor: Shaheen, Jeanne [Sen.-D-NH] (Introduced 06/18/2024) Cosponsors: (1)

Committees: Senate – Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

Latest Action: Senate – 06/18/2024 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Press Release: Shaheen, Young Reintroduce Bipartisan Bill to Address the Student Debt Crisis by Improving Institutional Accountability

Federal Education Training and Grant Opportunities, Notices:

ED Comment Request: U.S. Department of Education Postsecondary Success Recognition Program. Comments are due on or before July 2, 2024.

ED Comment Request: International Resource Information System (IRIS). Comments due on or before July 8, 2024.

ED Comment Request: Postsecondary Student Success Grant. Comments due on or before July 8, 2024.

ED Comment Request: Transitioning Gang-Involved Youth to Higher Education Program. Comments due on or before July 8, 2024.

ED Comment Request: Assurance of Compliance-Civil Rights Certificate. Comments are due on or before July 15, 2024.

ED Comment Request: Pell Grant Reporting Under the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System. Comments due on or before July 17, 2024.

ED Comment Request: Evaluation of the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority Pilot Program Survey Data Collections. Comments due on or before July 25, 2024.

ED Comment Request: National Center for College Students With Disabilities (NCCSD) Database of Disability Services and Activities in Higher Education. Comments due on or before July 29, 2024.

ED Comment Request: William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program (Direct Loan Program) Promissory Notes and Related Forms. Comments due on or before July 29, 2024.

ED Notice: Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students Program. Applications due on August 5, 2024.

ED Grant Notice: Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities—National Center on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, etc. Applications due on or before August 12, 2024.

ED Grant: From Seedlings to Scale Grant Program and Research Networks Focused on Critical Problems of Education Policy and Practice. Applications due on or before August 15, 2024.

ED Comment Request: Impact Aid Electronic Data Collection (EDC) Program Questionnaire. Comments due on or before August 16, 2024.

ED Comment Request: Rural, Insular, and Native Achievement Programs Progress Update Protocol. Comments due on or before August 23, 2024.

DOL Comment Request: Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Common Performance Reporting. Comments due on or before August 23, 2024.

ED Grant Notice: Stronger Connections Technical Assistance and Capacity Building Grant Program. Applications due on or before August 26, 2024.

NSF Grant Notice: Advanced Technological Education. Applications due on or before October 3, 2024.

ED Notice: Tests Determined To Be Suitable for Use in the National Reporting System for Adult Education.

ED Notice: List of Approved “Ability-to-Benefit” (ATB) Tests and Passing Scores

ETA Notice: Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) Program

ED Notice: President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Office of Secretary, Department of Education.