"(vi) promote student academic preparation for postsecondary education."
The letter further states, "Detailed policy proposals and necessary background information will be especially helpful to us as we work through the review process. We expect an aggressive time schedule, so we would appreciate receiving your proposals by December 31, 2002."
While the website provides an electronic form to submit individual recommendations, the letter recommends "To facilitate the submission of your proposals, we have established a link on the Committee's website that will allow you to provide input electronically. We have also provided a sample layout of how we would like to receive your information. Please utilize this chart when submitting multiple proposals. Please e-mail these proposals directly to HEA@mail.house.gov or submit individual ideas to http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/107th/education/highereducation/heacomments/."
Some guidance on using the Web site interface:
For Single Recommendations: By going to the Web site and clicking on Click here to submit your comments" you will be taken to an electronic form. Use this form to submit a single change or recommendation by filling out the "Suggested Amendment" and "Explanation/Rationale" boxes.
To save time and ensure accuracy, you might wish to "cut and paste" your suggested amendment and explanation/rationale into the proper boxes from another document prepared in your word processing program. You will need to also fill out the identification boxes preceding the suggested amendment and explanation/rationale boxes. If you know the "Statutory Cite" (e.g., the exact provision of the law {Section 476(b)(1)(A)(iv)(II)}) put it in, but don't worry about it if you don't know the statutory cite. To get the widest exposure of your suggested change you should give permission for the subcommittee to share your views outside the committee.
For Multiple Recommendations: By going to the Web site and clicking on Click here to submit your comments" you will be taken to an electronic form. Do not use this form: it is for single submissions; Click on "Chart in Word format." You will be given several options "Open," "Save," "Cancel," and "More Information." Choose "Save," which will save the document to your hard drive so you can work on it when convenient.
To get the form without going through the above process just click here for the form. The document will have four columns labeled "Statutory Authority," "Suggested Amendment," "Rationale," and "Proposed Statutory Language." It will have ten rows for recommendations, but if you have more than ten recommendation you may add more rows by going to the 10th row (leave it blank) and go to "Table" on your tool bar; scroll down to "Insert" when the box opens up click on "Rows Below." A new row will be added; once you do this procedure and "Insert Rows" icon will appear on your toolbar and you can click on that icon as many times as you have recommendations to add to the document. Please number the new rows.
To save time and ensure accuracy you might wish to "cut and paste" your "Statutory Authority," "Suggested Amendment," "Rationale," and "Proposed Statutory Language" into the proper boxes from another document prepared in your word processing program, rather than typing each individual recommendation. If you know the "Statutory Authority" e.g., the exact provision of the law {Section 476(b)(1)(A)(iv)(II)} put it in, but don't worry about it if you don't know the statutory cite. Fill in the "Suggested Amendment" and "Rationale" boxes in that row. If you want to try your hand at writing "Proposed Statutory Language," then go ahead, but don't worry about it if you don't. You are financial aid administrators, not congressional staff who write law their entire life. Save the document and E-mail it to the committee at HEA@mail.house.gov as an attachment to the E-mail. To get the widest exposure of your suggested change you should give permission for the subcommittee to share your views outside the committee as a message in the body of your E-mail.
NASFAA's Reauthorization Task Force continues to work hard developing proposals for HEA changes on behalf of you our members. It is anticipated that the bulk of NASFAA's proposals will be submitted by the December 31 deadline. We encourage you to use the resources of the House website, but also recommend you send a copy of your changes to us at reauth@nasfaa.org so that your ideas may be considered, but time is running out since the Task Force is next meeting October 5 to 7, 2002 and we must prepare our recommendations for Board of Directors approval at their mid-November meeting.
By Larry Zaglaniczny
NASFAA Director of Congressional Affairs
Posted September 26, 2002 on www.NASFAA.org, the Web Site of the
National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA).
Copyright 2002.
Please submit Web Site questions or comments to web@nasfaa.org
