News from NASFAA

Explanation of the Four Columns in NASFAA's Side-by-Side Comparisons of House and Senate HEA Reauthorization Bills to Current Law

• The first column shows "Current Law." These (sometimes lengthy) excerpts show the statutory language now in place.

• The second column shows "House Bill (H.R. 609)." This is the exact legislative language that the House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved when it reported H.R. 609 in July. H.R. 609 is the House version of the HEA reauthorization.

• The third column shows "Senate Bill (S. 1932)." This is the exact legislative language that the Senate Committee approved when it reported its "reconciliation bill." This may be a bit confusing. The Senate authorizing committee in early September reported S. 1614, which was its version of the HEA reauthorization. However, that bill was altered significantly since it was reported out of committee earlier this fall. The most accurate version of the Senate bill is S. 1932, which is the Senate's version of the budget cutting Senate Reconciliation bill approved last week by the Senate. The Senate Committee chose to include its entire HEA reauthorization as part of the massive Budget Reconciliation bill; every word and every line. Consequently, S. 1932 is the "true" HEA reauthorization bill coming from that body and it differs significantly from the original, S. 1614.

• The fourth column offers the NASFAA staff's brief explanations of the provisions of the House and Senate bills that change the statutory or governing language of the Title IV programs. Why is this important? Because the law is translated eventually into the regulations you have to follow. If you don't like a regulation, in about 98 times out of 100 ED is just following the law passed by Congress. In the small number of other instances, it's because of confusion or error on the part of ED lawyers and staff.

Return to main side-by-side comparison page.

National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA).
Copyright 2005. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited
Please submit Web Site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org