The Senate unanimously approved legislation (S. 1642) reauthorizing the Higher Education Act (HEA) today after unanimously adopting one modified amendment aimed at preventing institutions from using federal funds to pay for lobbying efforts.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Senate education committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-MA) worked together last night to modify Coburn's amendment that prohibits institutions from using federal student aid funds or federal earmark funds to pay for lobbying efforts.
Kennedy said the modified amendment would penalize institutions for using federal funds for lobbying without hampering their ability to conduct appropriate communications with policymakers and federal agencies.
Also in comments today, Kennedy and Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY), the ranking Republican on the Senate education committee, praised the bipartisan cooperation used to develop, modify and pass the bill.
"This legislation received unanimous bipartisan support in Committee," Kennedy said. "We know education is the real key to opportunity. This legislation reflects that knowledge. It is a commitment I believe we must make to ensure educational opportunity to each and every young person in this country."
The Senate debated and amended the bill all day Monday with the same bipartisanship that Kennedy and Enzi highlighted.
"This is not a perfect bill, but it is a perfect compromise," Enzi said.
Enzi suggested that lawmakers in the Senate and House will continue to work on some of the more divisive issues when the two chambers get together in a conference committee to work out the differences between the two bill.
The House has not begun work on its version of a HEA reauthorization bill, but there is a possibility that the reconciliation bill (H.R. 2669) and the HEA reauthorization bill will combined and negotiated with the House in a conference committee. Enzi hinted that this is the way he would prefer to move the bills ahead.
"I look forward to working on both of these bills together, and there is no reason that these bills can't be combined at this point," he said.
NASFAA and 20 other higher education associations expressed their support for the bill in a letter to Senators.
"As leaders of American higher education, we recognize that college attendance is a function of several different things: students must understand the value of higher education, have adequate information about appropriate educational programs, receive adequate academic preparation to enroll and succeed in higher education, and obtain the financial resources to participate," the letter states. "We believe the federal government has an important role to play in all of these areas and in making a college education more accessible to more students, and S. 1642 makes important contributions in this regard."
Media Coverage
By Haley Chitty
NASFAA Assistant Director for Communications
Posted 07/24/07 to www.NASFAA.org. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited. Please submit Web Site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org.
