New Senator at the Helm of Higher Education Act Negotiations
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., will “pinch hit” for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. — the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions who is recovering
from surgery to treat a malignant brain tumor — in Senate and House negotiations to overhaul the Higher Education
Act (HR 4137 and S 1642).
Mikulski, the third-most senior Democrat on the Senate committee, will handle the member-to-member negotiations
between education leaders in the Senate and the House of Representatives, according to an article in CQ
Politics (“Doctors Say Kennedy Brain Surgery
Successful,” June 2, 2008).
Both sides are working to merge two Higher
Education Act versions passed separately by the House and the Senate last year.
In mid-May the two houses had reached a compromise on college cost watch lists, college accreditation, and campus
piracy, but that draft of the measure did not include provisions on graduate education, new programs, or private
student loans.
It is unclear when Kennedy, who has worked to ensure undergraduates have access to student loans amid instability in
the student loan credit market, will return to the Senate.
Kennedy underwent surgery June 2, for a malignant glioma, an aggressive tumor of the central nervous system, and
will receive chemotherapy and radiation treatment over the next few weeks.
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