NASFAA has posted a document in four parts that shows the exact legislative language and a short description of the changes to the Higher Education Act (HEA) made by Congress with the Reconciliation bill that was signed into law by President Bush on February 8, 2006.
Last year, NASFAA published a side-by-side document showing in four columns:
- the current HEA law,
- the House Reconciliation bill legislative language,
- the Senate Reconciliation bill legislative language,
- and a short description of the House and Senate bills.
At that time the Senate Reconciliation bill included all its HEA Reauthorization provisions. However, in the Reconciliation Conference Report the Conferees did not accept the Senate approach and only dealt with legislative provisions that they considered as part of the Reconciliation legislative package that reduced spending on student aid programs by a net of $12.7 billion over five years.
This original document is expanded to include in the fifth column the exact legislative language found in the Conference Report to S. 1932, i.e., the statutory language modifying the HEA. Also added is a sixth column the gives a brief description of the change. Since the Conferees did not deal with most of the Senate bill's HEA Reauthorization changes, we have stripped most of those provisions out of the new document. Some of the provision remain in this document, however, and we have indicated in the fifth column "No change in law made by the Conferees."
It is the first column (with the current HEA law), the fifth column (with the Conference Report legislative language), and the sixth column (with the short description of the change) that will be of most interest to you as you work to implement the provisions of the newly modified HEA. By comparing changes made by legislative language in the fifth column to the current law, one can see how it is modified by the Reconciliation bill.
Each document in the fifth column contains the exact legislative language that has been signed into law changing the HEA. To ease reference back to the Reconciliation bill, S. 1932, we have placed the section number (i.e., SEC. 8015) in bold at the beginning of each citation and then, again in bold, break down the sections into subsections, paragraphs, etc (i.e. (a), (b), or (1), (2), and so on).
The effective date (the date the provision is implemented) for most of the provisions of the law is July 1, 2006. But many provisions have different effective dates such as "the date of enactment," which is the date (February 8, 2006) that the President signed the bill into law, or July 1, 2007 or another date. If a citation in the description does not have a specific reference to another date, then you may assume it is July 1, 2006.
We realize that this document is cumbersome to use. Consequently, staff is now working on a more reader-friendly document that will be divided into functional areas (e.g., student eligibility issues or distance education changes or loan limit modifications). That upcoming document will discuss the Reconciliation changes in the HEA in more detail.
The new six-column side-by-side documents appear below. As explained above, these new documents expand on the four-column original documents published last December.
Side-by-Side: Part A Programs
- SUBPART 1--Federal Pell Grants (25 pages). Note: The Reconciliation bill does not change the provisions of the Pell Grant Program, but adds two new merit based grant programs: one for 1st- and 2nd-year undergraduates who complete a rigorous secondary program and one for 3rd- and 4th-year undergraduates who are enrolled in certain defined academic majors. If you have further questions in this area please contact Larry Zaglaniczny in the NASFAA office at 202-785-0453 ext. 129 or e-mail to LarryZ@NASFAA.org.
Side-by-Side: Part B and D Programs
- Part B (FFEL) and Part D (Direct Loan) program comparisons (256 pages). Note: the Reconciliation bill makes changes in the Part B FFEL Program and the Part D Direct Loan program and this document does include a few changes made in the Perkins Loan Program chiefly adding a new deferment. If you have further questions in this area please contact Larry Zaglaniczny in the NASFAA office at 202-785-0453 ext. 129 or e-mail to LarryZ@NASFAA.org.
Side-by-Side: Part F
- Need Analysis (49 pages). Note: The Reconciliation bill makes a number of important need analysis changes. If you have further questions in this area please contact Marty Guthrie in the NASFAA office at 202-785-0453 ext. 114 or e-mail to GuthrieM@NASFAA.org.
Side-by-Side: Part G
- General Provisions (53 pages). Note: The Reconciliation bill makes a number of important changes to the General Provisions section of the HEA. If you have any questions about this document and your question involves Section 484B "Return of Title IV Funds" (refund policy) pages 27 through 45, please e-mail Marty Guthrie at GuthrieM@NASFAA.org or call Guthrie at 202-785-0453 ext. 114. If your question involves anything else, then please e-mail Larry Zaglaniczny at LarryZ@NASFAA.org or call Zaglaniczny at 202-785-0453 ext. 129.
By Larry Zaglaniczny
NASFAA Director for Congressional Relations
Originally posted March 2, 2006 on www.NASFAA.org, the Web Site of the
National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA).
Copyright 2006. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited
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