OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
Legislation and Policy Report
February 2008
WASHINGTON, D. C.
February proved to be a busy month on Capitol Hill. President
George Bush introduced the Administration’s FY2009 budget,
the House passed its version of the Higher Education Act reauthorization,
and Congress enacted an economic stimulus bill, while spending
time for a District Work week that coincided with Presidents
Day week.
The $168 billion stimulus package moved through both chambers
with uncommon speed and includes rebates for taxpayers and tax
breaks for businesses that legislators and President Bush hope
will be the impetus for a rush of spring spending and kindle
the slowing economy.
Ethics reform - As Congress continues to address
ethic reform, House leadership postponed consideration of a
plan for an independent ethics panel to review House members’
conduct. Members of both parties expressed alarm at the proposal,
which would give a board of six outsiders appointed by the leadership
the ability to initiate inquires into suspected unethical behavior.
The Board plan was developed by a bipartisan group formed by
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Minority Leader John Boehner
(R-OH) to explore strengthening ethics enforcement in the House
to regulate members’ behavior.
Earmarks - And, in the battle as to which
party is the most “financially responsible,” House
Republican leaders issues guidelines for FY2009 earmark requests
from their members. These include banning earmarks for buildings,
projects or programs named after sitting members. Exceptions
for previously named projects must be “fully justified
and vetted” and any requesting member must certify in
writing that they will not name a project after a sitting member.
With 30 Republican House members retiring at the end of the
year this puts a crimp in plans to honor several of them.
Republican members must require potential recipients of earmarks
to fill out and sign certification forms confirming they are
complying with the new standards, including the now infamous
separate paragraph agreeing to comply with the new standards
in their disclosure forms to committee chairs that certify they
have no personal financial interest in an earmark project. Financial
disclosure letters must be inserted into the Record when an
earmark is secured.
Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) is expected to introduce an amendment
to the Senate version of the Congressional Budget Resolution
prohibiting earmarks in FY2009 bills, including appropriations,
tax trade and authorizing legislation. This is not expected
to be approved.
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Budget and Appropriations:
FY2008 – The White House Office of Science
and Technology Policy (OSTP) published a document that details
the impact of the FY08 omnibus appropriations bill on current
and planned programs at the three agencies central to the Administration’s
American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI). The omnibus provided
far less funding for the agencies – Department of Energy
Office of Science, National Science Foundation, and National
Institute of Standards and Technology – than the Administration
requested. The goal of the ACI is to double funding for these
physical sciences and engineering research agencies over 10
years.
FY2009 – President Bush introduced his
final budget bill on February 4. The $3 trillion budget includes
$147 billion for federal R&D and $138 billion in student
aid and grants. The budget environment remains challenging with
federal FY09 beginning on October 1. There is speculation that
the FY09 budget will not be completed until a lame-duck session
meets following the November election and could be postponed
until the 111th Congress convenes and a new president is inaugurated
in January 2009. The President and Congress are limited in discretionary
funding because of the costs of the continuing wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan, the national debt, rising entitlement program
costs, and a sluggish economy.
A bipartisan group of 17 senators sent a letter to Senate Budget
Committee leaders urging them to provide significant funding
increases for basic scientific research and mathematics and
science education initiatives in the FY09 budget resolution.
The letter requested funding increases of at least $1.57 billion
for the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy,
at least $208.6 million for the National Institute of Standards
and Technology, and at least $708 million for American COMPETES
programs in the Department of Education.
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Higher Education:
Reauthorization –The House approved
the Higher Education Reauthorization Act (H.R. 4137) by a vote
of 354-58 on February 7. All members of the Ohio Delegation
voted in favor of the bill with the exception of Minority Leader
John Boehner. The White House opposed the bill because the measure
“would restrict the Department of Education’s authority
to regulate on accreditation; create nearly four dozen new,
costly and duplicative Federal programs; condition receipt of
Federal grant funding on tuition price; and restrict the Department’s
ability to evaluate and effectively manage Upward Bound and
other TRIO programs.”
The House bill contains a complex array of college pricing
requirements that exceed the Senate version. In the House bill
the 5 percent most expensive and the 5 percent least expensive
colleges, by sector, will appear on public lists. A third group
of institutions – the 5 percent with the greatest percentage
increase in tuition by sector and type over the preceding three
years – would face a series of sanctions, including creating
“Quality Efficiency Task Forces” to explore how
to reduce campus costs.
An amendment offered by Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE) and approved
during the House floor vote would require the Quality Efficiency
Task Forces to develop annual benchmarks. Institutions not meeting
the benchmarks would be required to provide detailed explanations
for why the benchmarks were unmet.
The legislation also calls for the Secretary of Education to
develop a net price calculator for families, with colleges required
to place the calculator on the web sites within three years.
Colleges would be required to collect and report many new data
items for the Department to use them in producing a “Higher
Education Pricing Summary Page” for each college or university.
Also included are conflict-of-interest rules on student lending
that would limit the parameters on colleges and lenders working
together in developing preferred lender lists. The rules also
would ensure that students receiving private loans have uniform
federal disclosures on terms and conditions and that private
loan students are informed of less expensive federal student
aid options.
The Senate approved its version of the bill in July 2007. A
conference committee will negotiate the differences between
the bills by retaining, removing, or compromising on various
measures in the legislation. A timetable has not been established
for conference committee work. A side-by-side comparison of
the bills will be available shortly.
Peer-to-peer File Sharing – Representatives
from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) told members
of the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment
Communities at a recent meeting in Los Angeles that they would
continue to press for legislative language now contained in
the House version of the Higher Education Act reauthorization
bill. The provision would force colleges and universities to
develop plans for legal P2P alternatives and explore methods
of “technological deterrence that would prevent illegal
file sharing.”
The higher education community believes that the requirements
in the House bill not only would inappropriately insert the
Department of Education into the issue, but are unlikely to
address the problem. While the entertainment industry continues
to see technological deterrents as a panacea for its problem,
many campus technology experts believe it will be some time
before technologies are developed that can reduce illegal downloading
without adversely affecting legal uses.
International study abroad – NAFSA:
Association of International Educators has released a report
to help institutions ensure that they are properly managing
their study abroad programs. The report, “Strengthening
Study Abroad: Recommendations for Effective Institutional Management,”
was developed by a group of university presidents and provosts
to “recommend core principles, values, and behaviors for
senior campus administrators to consider as they develop policies
and practices to guide the management of the study abroad function.”
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved
the Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act (S. 991). The measure
would create an independent public-private foundation that would
award competitive grants to institutions and individual students
with the goal of significantly increasing the number of US students
studying abroad. No date has been identified for full Senate
consideration of the measure. The House approved a companion
measure (H.R. 1469) in June 2007.
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Immigration:
At a hearing sponsored by a subcommittee of the House Science
and Technology Committee discussed focused on US visa policies
affecting international scholars and students. Witnesses stated
that although conditions have improved additional modifications
are needed. Dr. Catheryn Cotton from Duke University told the
panel that several improvements should be made. These include
allowing international students and scholars in the US to apply
for visas and security clearances in the US prior to traveling
outside of the US for family or professional reasons. Other
beneficial changes would include creating a new nonimmigrant
classification to meet the special needs of higher education
and research institutions and liberalizing employment rules
for international students.
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National Institutes of Health:
Biomedical Research Price Index – The
National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a memo on February
4 reporting that the FY07 increase in the Biomedical Research
and Development Price Index (BRDPI) is 3.9 percent. The annual
change in the Index estimates how much the NIH budget must change
to compensate for inflation in the cost of research-related
goods and services in order to maintain NIH funded research
activity at the previous year’s level. The analysis also
projects that the Index will increase by 3.5 percent each year
from FY2008 through FY2013.
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National Science Foundation:
Cost sharing - A committee of the National
Science Board (NSB) released a report on cost sharing policies
of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The “Report
to Congress on Cost Sharing Policies at the National Science
Foundation” makes several important recommendations.
• Define and communicate a set of overarching principles
to guide the application of mandatory cost sharing to include
specific goals and expected outcomes of its applications.
• Continue to employ OMB Circular A-110 to define cost
sharing.
• Enhance its training of program officers to avoid unintended
implicit or explicit requests for voluntary cost sharing/institutional
commitments during the budget negotiation process.
• Mandatory cost sharing will be required for Engineering
Research Centers, the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive
Research, and industry/University Cooperative Research Centers.
• Continue to communicate the requirements of tracking
and reporting mandatory cost sharing to all institutions to
which it provides funding.
• Periodically review its cost sharing policies and their
impacts.
The panel will hold roundtable discussions with stakeholders
in academia, government and industry.
NSF report on R&D – A newly released
report from the NSF estimates that federal obligations for research
and development (R&D) in FY2007 dropped by about $500 million
from their FY06 levels to $116.4 billion. This constitutes a
three percent cut if adjusted for inflation. The FY07 total
also marks the first decline in federal R&D spending since
2000 in both actual and inflation adjusted dollars. The report
contains additional information by type of work, funding per
year – delineated by both “current” dollars
and “constant” dollars – and by funding agency.
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Patent Reform:
A group of higher education associations sent a letter on February
5 to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders reiterating that although
the Committee’s patent reform bill (S. 1145) addresses
many of the university community’s concerns, some critical
issues remain. The letter was sent in response to a document
circulated by an industry patent reform group, Coalition for
Patent Fairness, which claimed erroneously that the higher education
community was satisfied with the Committee reported bill.
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Odds and Ends:
Export Controls - The Association of American
Universities (AAU) and the Council on Government Relations (COGR)
wrote to Commerce Department Secretary Carlos Gutierrez expressing
views on the recommendations made by the Deemed Export Advisory
Committee (DEAC) on revising deemed export control regulations.
The letter supports the recommendations that the list of technologies
covered by deemed export controls should be shortened and that
technologies on the Commerce Control List (CCL) should sunset
automatically after one year unless a review demonstrates that
they should remain.
However, the letter raises concern about the Committee’s
seven-point plan for determining if a foreign student or scholar
requires an export license to conduct certain research, including
that the first step is determination of an individual’s
loyalty to the United States. The associations also opposed
the proposed change to the definition of “fundamental
research” because the current definition is well understood.
The proposed change would reduce the clarity of the definition.
Presidential primary races - Former Governor
Mitt Romney (R-MA) withdrew from the Republican presidential
primary race unexpectedly on February 7, two days after “Super
Tuesday, all but ceding the nomination to Senator John McCain.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
remain in the race but are not viewed as a threat to Senator
McCain.
In the Democratic contest Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)
and Barack Obama (D-IL) continue battle in a close race with
the March 4 primaries in Ohio and Texas expected to be critical
to both candidates’ futures.
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Comings and Goings:
David Walker, Comptroller General and head
of the Government Accountability Office, will resign effective
March 12. Mr. Walker is leaving government service to become
president and CEO of the newly established Peter G. Peterson
Foundation.
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THE BUCKEYE STATE
State-of-the-State Address - Governor Ted
Strickland delivered his second State-of-the-State address on
February 6. As part of his remarks the Governor called for a
$1.7 billion bond initiative for energy, development and Clean
Ohio initiatives, a transitional college preparation program,
an executive branch leader for the Department of Education and
creation of the Ohio Department of Veterans Affairs.
The $1.7 billion bond initiative entitled, “Building
Ohio Jobs,” is expected to create 80,000 new jobs and
bolster Ohio’s infrastructure and industry by investing:
• $250 million – advanced and renewable energy.
• $150 million – infrastructure.
• $100 million – bioproducts that use renewable
sources.
• $200 million – biomedical industry.
• $200 million – Ohio Main Street redevelopment
initiative.
• $400 million – Clean Ohio Fund projects.
• $400 million – Ohio Public Works Commission.
The Governor will work with the General Assembly to enact legislation
to place the bond initiative, which requires voter approval,
on the Ohio ballot in November.
The “Seniors to Sophomores” plan would allow high
school seniors to earn their high school diplomas while earning
credits toward completion of their first year in college simultaneously.
The program is expected to be rolled out through several small
pilot projects and will include public colleges and universities
only. The Governor indicated that as the plan grows private
colleges and universities will be included. The Governor did
not provide funding details.
The Governor also announced that he intends to make the Ohio
Department of Education a Cabinet-level agency similar to action
he took a year ago in moving the Ohio Board of Regents under
the Governor’s Office umbrella. The Governor would appoint
a director for the department and the Superintendent and State
Board of Education would serve in advisory capacities.
The Ohio Department of Veterans Affairs would also be created,
following the lead of many other states. The proposed change
in the Department of Education and creation of the Department
of VA will require action by the General Assembly.
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Electric Re-regulation
Legislation - As the House of Representatives
continues to consider S.B. 221, Speaker Jon Husted announced
an alternative energy proposal. The proposed legislation would
include:
• A year-by-year timetable that utilities would be required
to meet to begin producing a portion of the power they supply
with renewable technologies, beginning with 0.25 percent by
the end of 2009 and reaching a minimum 12.5 percent by the end
of 2024. (Solar energy would have to amount to 1 percent by
the end of 2024.)
• A similar timetable for energy efficiency. The bill
would require a reduction of power consumption totaling 22 percent
by the year 2025.
• A formula, considered complicated, to fine utilities
for failure to reach the minimum standards for renewable energy
and energy efficiency.
• Creation of a Renewable Energy Authority that would
collect the fines, which could not be passed to ratepayers.
• Language authorizing the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources’ division of mineral resource management as
the sole authority to regulate carbon dioxide injections from
power plants IF Congress required utilities to capture the gas
from their smokestacks.
• A provision targeted for industrial users, allowing
them to bypass costs incurred by utilities in meeting renewable
standards if these customers purchase power from other suppliers.
Speaker Husted created his legislation by adapting and strengthening
provisions included in Governor Strickland’s comprehensive
energy bill (S.B. 221) and using legislation introduced by Rep.
Jim McGregor (R-Gahanna) in 2007. The Speaker’s plan is
to introduce the legislation, hold hearings and pass the bill
and then incorporate it into S.B. 221 for final passage. Hearings
began on February 26.
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Student Poll Workers Legislation
- The House State Government and Elections
Committee passed H.B. 350 sponsored by Rep. Larry Wolpert (R-23).
The legislation would allow high school and college students
to work as poll officials in their home or school precincts
on Election Day.
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LOCALLY…
Mamie Mitchell has been named to serve as
Cleveland Councilwoman for Ward 6, succeeding Pat Britt,
who is now Clerk of Cleveland City Council.
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Sources of information for this report include the Association
of American Universities, American Institute of Physics, the
Chronicle of Higher Education, the Association of Independent
Colleges and Universities of Ohio’s updates and reports,
newspapers, political and legislative wire services, and others.
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