Student Loan Blog : National Institutes of Health

House Dems Get Second Crack at Higher Education Appropriations Bill

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:23:00 GMT

Just days after President Obama signed a $787 billion economic stimulus bill into law, House Democrats have reintroduced a $410 billion overdue appropriations measure that would finance dozens of federal agencies and programs, including many related to higher education, whose budgets went unapproved during the last session of Congress, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Delayed Appropriations Bill Would Increase Pell Grant and Research Funds,” Feb. 24, 2009).

During the tail end of the Bush administration, democratic lawmakers chose to put the original appropriations bill on the back burner after President Bush threatened to veto any measure that would exceed his fiscal budget. Instead, legislators passed a “continuing resolution” to fund the budgetless organizations at fiscal 2008 levels through March 6, so that legislators could revisit the appropriations bill under a new administration.

Lawmakers, after being delayed by work on the stimulus bill, are finally taking a second look at the appropriations bill just days before the continuing resolution’s termination date and President Obama’s scheduled release of his fiscal year 2010 budget.

The proposed spending bill will “keep the government running and finish last year’s business,” said David Obey D-Wis., head of the House Appropriations Committee, as wells as complement the Obama administration’s economic recovery package.

While the proposed budget measure will provide expanded funding to a variety of agencies and programs, it currently offers few specific financing details. The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education could get $133.7 million to fund projects intended to model improvements to college education and accessibility, the Gear Up program could get $313.2 million to help financially needy middle and high school students prepare for college, and the government’s student financial aid programs could get a $19.2 billion boost.

The House Appropriations Committee bill would also expand research funding for the National Institutes of Health by $938 million, and provide an additional $347 million in funding to the Federal Pell Grant Program, drawing on the budget previously allocated for the underutilized, and Bush administration-supported, Academic Competitiveness and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent grant programs.

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Colleges and Students Could Benefit From Pending Federal Bailout

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:37:00 GMT

It seems that everyone is getting a piece of the government’s “bailout pie,” including banks, automakers, and perhaps even the nation’s colleges and universities, although exactly how much schools will get and when they will get it has not yet been established, reports Inside Higher Ed (“Manna From Heaven (er, Washington),” Jan. 16, 2009).

While provisions of an $825 billion stimulus package bill drafted by House Democrats earlier this week could change significantly before the bill is ratified by both houses of Congress — the Senate is reportedly in the process of writing its own version of the bill — a rough estimate by Inside Higher Education suggests that colleges and their students could end up benefiting to the tune of tens of billions of dollars in several areas:

Student Aid: $30 billion Nearly $15.6 billion would be used to increase Pell Grant awards by $500 per recipient to $5,350, a move that would help about 800,000 students in the 2009–10 school year and would wipe out the $1.4 billion shortfall projected for next year’s Pell Grant program budget. Some $12.5 billion of the bill would be used to increase the limit on federal unsubsidized student loans by $2,000 and to replace the HOPE Tax Credit with a restructured tax credit worth up to $2,500 to benefit low-income families.
College Grants: $4 billion Community colleges and for-profit schools could receive as much as $4 billion in the form of grants for adult education programs, so that these students may be able to receive career-related or job-education training. Some funds could also be allocated to states in the form of bonds that local governments could use to create “recovery zones” to help those individuals who reside in areas suffering from high unemployment or foreclosure rates.
College Infrastructure: $8.7 billion About $6 billion would be used for “higher education modernization, renovation and repair” and would be distributed to states based on the number of full-time undergraduates attending state institutions. Some $2.7 billion would be allocated to renovate, update, and modernize biomedical research facilities and upgrade equipment, with funding priority given to colleges that “serve high numbers of minority students” or “institutions impacted by a major disaster.”
State Aid: $39 billion A portion of this estimated $39 billion would be given to state governments “to help restore cuts to critical education programs,” including those in higher education. Some of these funds may be used to “restore state support for postsecondary education to the fiscal year 2008 level.”
Academic Research: $8 billion Some $2 billion would be allocated for research on energy efficiency and renewable energy along with $1.9 billion allocated for basic energy studies. An additional $2 billion would go to the National Science Foundation, $1.5 billion would be used by the National Institutes of Health for biomedical research, and $400 million to be used by NASA for climate-change research.

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Colleges Want Piece of Federal Government’s “Bailout Pie”

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:17:00 GMT

With 39 states anticipating budget shortfalls next year totaling more than $100 billion, colleges are urging Congress to include them in a second economic stimulus bill currently being drafted, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports (“As the Economic Crisis Hits Home, Colleges Seek Help From Congress,” Nov. 13, 2008).

Hard hit by the deteriorating economy and financial markets, many schools are dealing with declining endowments, reduced support from the state, and higher numbers of financially needy students. To help schools overcome these challenges, college lobbyists are asking Congress to include funds for financial aid, research, and infrastructure as part of the new economic-stimulus bill.

The Association of American Universities and the American Association of Medical Colleges are specifically lobbying Congress for more money for research, emphasizing the ways colleges support the economy by creating new jobs, graduating work-ready students, and promoting business development.

In a recent letter from the AAMC quantifying its claims, the organization stated that medical colleges were responsible for about 3 million jobs, $20 billion in state tax revenue and injected $451 billion into the economy last year.

Billions Requested by College Associations

Many college associations representing a wide array of interests have petitioned Congress for several billion dollars, each for distinct purposes:

The AAMC is requesting $1.9 billion for the National Institutes of Health.
The American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Student Aid Alliance are asking for more than $5 billion to make up for a projected shortfall in Pell Grant funding and for Congress to provide enough funding to meet a recently passed $500 increase to the maximum Pell Grant award.
The Association of American Universities wants bailout money set aside for campus construction projects that have halted across the nation.

In their pursuit of funds, schools are competing with state governments, as well as the ailing airline and auto industries. And with the transfer of power on January 20, 2009 from the current Bush administration to the Obama administration, schools may have to wait until February or later to see if they get the capital infusion they seek.

With so many urgent needs confronting Congress — including the possible collapse of Ford, Chrysler and GM, and the loss of millions of jobs if the automakers don’t receive $25 billion in emergency government loans — colleges realize that they aren’t likely a top priority to receive government aid, the Chronicle suggests.

Cynthia Littlefield, director of federal relations at the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities said, “There are so many people going to the trough who have legitimate needs that it’s going to be hard.”

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Senator Pushes Colleges for Enhanced Oversight of Funded Research and Endowments

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:57:00 GMT

Sen. Charles Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, wants colleges to be held more accountable in both their academic research and their endowment spending, according to a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Sen. Grassley Pressures Universities on Science Conflicts and Financial Aid,” July 25, 2008).

In an exclusive interview with the Chronicle, Grassley said the National Institutes of Health should revoke any of the grants it awards to scientists if a researcher fails to report a conflict of interest with her or his institution. The senator has singled out several institutions of higher education, including Harvard University, Stanford University, and the University of Cincinnati, after his office determined that some scientists at these schools had not fully reported their own financial interests in research projects supported by the NIH, as research institutions are required to do by law.

Grassley has asked 20 other colleges and universities to provide details about possible financial conflicts of interest between university researchers and the NIH.

Colleges Need to Direct More of Their Endowment Funds Toward Financial Aid

The senator has also criticized academic institutions with large endowments for spending too little on financial aid for disadvantaged students. The senator recently asked 136 schools to specify how they spend their endowment income.

Institutions that responded indicated that much of these endowments comes from donors who have earmarked their financial gifts for purposes other than financial aid. The senator said he wasn’t persuaded by the argument and noted that he may still pursue legislation that would require universities to spend as much as 5 percent of their endowments each year, although he hopes such a requirement won’t be necessary.

Grassley stated that he may not sponsor such legislation if more schools begin voluntarily following the example set by some of the nation’s elite institutions that began funneling more of their endowment funds to student financial aid packages earlier this year.

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Unfinished Business: Congress May Break Before Higher-Ed Bills Reviewed

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:08:00 GMT

While Congress is heading home for its annual Fourth of July recess, there are still many higher-education bills and pieces of legislation that need to be addressed before they break, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Higher- Education Bills Are Among Congress's Unfinished Business,” June 30,2008).

Chief among Congress’ “unfinished business” is the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which hasn’t been renewed for five years due to the inability of Congress to reach a consensus on the 1,200-page bill. Key components of the act that still need to be ironed out include:

Whether to punish states that cut their higher-education budgets
If colleges and textbook publishers should have to disclose more information about textbook costs
Whether colleges should be required to contact students and employees within 30 minutes of an emergency

While legislators are still working out the final language of the bill, political aides believe that a compromise could be reached shortly, with a vote in both houses expected to take place in late July.

The spending bill that funds Department of Education programs, the National Institutes of Health, and seeks to increase Pell Grant funding, is also up for review. The House version of the bill would increase the maximum Pell Grant award by $169 to $4,900, whereas the Senate version would increase Pell awards by only $69 to $4,800.

Congress may also tackle Higher Education tax breaks set to expire this year prior to their recess including those that would allow:

Families to deduct up to $4,000 from their taxable income for tuition and related expenses
Individuals to make tax-free charitable contributions to colleges from their retirement accounts
The government to contribute tax credits to businesses for research and development

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House Stalls Spending Bill That Would Boost Pell Grants, Biomedical Research

Student Loan Girl — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:31:00 GMT

A proposed spending bill that would raise Pell Grant award amounts and increase funding for the National Institutes of Health was delayed indefinitely Thursday after Democrats and Republicans began squabbling over the bill’s provisions, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Spending Bill for Student Aid And NIH Hits Partisan Roadblock in House,” June 26, 2008).

Republicans want to strip out the financial aid and biomedical research funding provisions of the proposed legislation — which the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee had been poised to approve for the 2009 fiscal year — and replace them with unrelated provisions, including one authorizing an expansion of oil drilling in the United States, the Chronicle reports.

The move incensed the Committee’s chairman Rep. David Obey, D-Wisc., who called it “a political stunt,” the kind that explains why Americans “despise” Congress. Democrats then moved to adjourn the session.

The breakdown came a week after the Appropriations subcommittee had approved the current form of the spending bill, which would raise the maximum Pell Grant award to $4,900 and increase the NIH budget by $1.2-billion.

If the full House Appropriations Committee resumes consideration of the bill and approves it, the bill would go before the full House of Representatives for a vote.

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