RAMC WASHINGTON WRAP UP – April 9, 2025

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

April 9, 2025

CONGRESS

The House Appropriations Committee announced that the portal Members use to file programmatic, language and Community Project Funding requests will open up on April 14 for fiscal year (FY) 2026 filings. Submissions for the House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee are due May 23.

The Senate Budget Committee released an updated version of its budget resolution text and began the process of considering the measure on the Senate floor.

The Ranking Members of the House and Senate Budget Committees sent a letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office requesting an investigation of various Trump Administration directives and their consistency with the Impoundment Control Act

ADMINISTRATION

ED’s Office of Postsecondary Education announced its intention to host public hearings and establish one or more negotiated rulemaking committees to prepare proposed regulations on Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Income Contingent Repayment (ICR) and other “topics that would streamline current federal student financial assistance programs.”

ED announced the retirement of Chief Operating Officer for the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) and former Acting U.S. Secretary of Education Denise Carter. In her place, Acting Under Secretary James Bergeron will serve as Acting Chief Operating Officer for FSA.

ED revoked waivers to California and Oregon colleges and universities that allowed them to use Federal TRIO funds to support undocumented students.

ED and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) launched a “Title IX Special Investigations Team.”

U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi directed the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division to begin compliance review investigations into admissions policies at Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Irvine over their alleged use of “DEI discrimination.”

White House Budget Director Russ Vought sent a letter to Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee Patty Murray (D-WA), sharing that the Office of Management and Budget “will no longer operate and maintain” the publicly available system that shows how the budget office is directing agencies to spend Federal dollars.

President Trump sent several new nominations to the Senate, including David Brian Castillo as Chief Financial Officer, Anthony D’Esposito as Inspector General and Andrew Rogers as Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a reduction in workforce of approximately 10,000 full-time employees.

COURTS

A Federal appeals court ruled that restrictions on the president’s power to remove officers of the executive branch are unconstitutional.

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

Tracking Trump’s Higher-Ed Agenda [The Chronicle of Higher Education]

Conservatives Seize the Moment to Remake Higher Ed [Inside Higher Ed]

Nearly 300 Students Have Had Visas Revoked and Could Face Deportation [The New York Times]

Americans without a degree still believe in the value of college, a new poll says [NPR]

Judge permanently blocks NIH’s plan to cap funding, setting up appeals battle [Higher Ed Dive]

‘Let’s shake it up’: Linda McMahon defends massive cuts at Education Department [Higher Ed Dive]

Bienvenidos! Some colleges are targeting a long-neglected group: Hispanic students [NPR]

Student Visa Dragnet Reaches Small Colleges [Inside Higher Ed]

FAFSA had been struggling for years. Then Trump cut the Education Department in half [The Hill]

Trump’s pro-Palestinian activism crackdown closely mirrors a plan from the creators of Project 2025 [Politico]

Supreme Court allows Trump officials to freeze teacher training grants over DEI [The Washington Post]

Positive Partnership: Experiential Learning for Students With Disabilities [Inside Higher Ed]

As Universities Yield to Trump, Higher Ed Unions Are Fighting [Inside Higher Ed]

Leading Jewish group condemns deportations of pro-Palestinian protesters [The Washington Post]

The Confusion in Higher Ed Right Now ‘Knows No Bounds’ [Inside Higher Ed]

Should College Graduates Be AI Literate? [The Chronicle of Higher Education]

The NIH’s Cancellation of Hundreds of Grants Is an ‘Ideological Purge,’ Lawsuit Says [The Chronicle of Higher Education]

Trump and Musk Set Their Sights on Humanities Cuts [Inside Higher Ed]

Smashing the Student Visa System [Inside Higher Ed]

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

Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

Press Release: POSTPONED: Senate HELP Committee to Vote on Bills to Combat Antisemitism on College Campuses, Address Childhood Cancer

Press Release: Chair Cassidy, Tillis Introduce Bill to Prevent Foreign Influence at American Colleges & Universities

House Minority Leader

Press Release: Leader Jeffries: Dear Colleague on Reckless House Republican Budget Bill

House Committee on Education and Workforce

Press Release: Allen Holds Hearing on the NLRB, Student-Athletes, and the Future of College Sports

Blog: Hearing Recap: “Game Changer: The NLRB, Student-Athletes, and the Future of College Sports”

Statements and Webcast from Yesterday’s Subcommittee Hearing on “Game Changer: the NLRB, Student-Athletes, and the Future of College Sports”

Press Release: Education and Workforce Committee to Mark Up Bills to Protect Students, Empower Workers, and Reduce Red Tape

April 9: Full Committee Markup of H.R. 2617, H.R. 2616, H.Res. 237, H.R. 2262, H.R. 2270

2175 Rayburn and via webcast.

10:15 a.m. ET

House Committee on Appropriations

Press Release: Cole Releases FY26 Programmatic, Language, and Community Project Funding Guidance

Press Release: DeLauro Edits Vought’s Letter: “Fixed it for you.”

April 9: Subcommittee Hearing on “Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education – Public Witness Day”

Witnesses: Jessica Pescatore, Clinical Director, Alabama Poison Information Center, America’s Poison Centers; Jennifer Carroll, Assistant Director, Community Action Partnership of North Alabama; Michelle Sie Whitten, Executive Director, The Global Down Syndrome Foundation; Christopher French, Co-Chair and Senior Vice President, Alliance for Biosecurity; Christopher M Kramer, President, American College of Cardiology; Rey Saldaña, President and CEO, Communities in Schools; Teresa Sokol, LA State Epidemiologist; Board Member, Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists; Sara Schapiro, Executive Director, Alliance for Learning Innovation; Dr. Scott Harris, State Health Officer of the Alabama Department of Public Health, President, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials; Dr. Colleen Kelly, Chair, HIV Medicine Association

2358-C RHOB

10:30 a.m. ET

House Committee on the Budget

Press Release: Chairman Arrington Statement on Reconciliation

Press Release: Boyle Statement on Passage of Senate Budget Resolution

House Committee on Ways and Means

Press Release: Work & Welfare Subcommittee Chairman LaHood Opening Statement: Hearing on Government Watchdog Findings for the TANF Program

Press Release: Davis Opening Statement at Worker and Family Support Subcommittee Hearing on TANF

Statements and Webcast from Yesterday’s Subcommittee Hearing on “Government Watchdog Findings: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program In Need of Reform, Better State Accountability, and Fraud Protection”

U.S. Department of Education and the Administration

ED Press Release: U.S Department of Education and U.S. Department of Justice Announce Title IX Special Investigations Team

ED Press Release: U.S. Department of Education Announces Retirement of FSA Chief Operating Officer

ED Press Release: U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education Announces Negotiated Rulemaking

Legislative Movement in Congress:

H.R.2595 — To amend part A of title IV of the Social Security Act to provide funding to sustain and increase the supply and quality of child care, access to child care, and the child care workforce, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Davis, Danny K. [Rep.-D-IL-7] (Introduced 04/02/2025) Cosponsors: (16)

Committees: House – Ways and Means

Latest Action: House – 04/02/2025 Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

H.R.2634 — To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require public institutions of higher education, as a condition of participating in programs under title IV of such Act, to provide a written statement and educational programming to new students on the rights of students under the first amendment to the Constitution.

Sponsor: Kiley, Kevin [Rep.-R-CA-3] (Introduced 04/03/2025) Cosponsors: (1)