"A small group of U.S. senators and representatives and their staffs are working at breakneck speed with the hope that Congress can wrap up its work by Memorial Day on compromise legislation to renew the Higher Education Act. But if a draft of the bill that is being circulated this week is any indication, numerous major issues remain unresolved and the measure, as currently written, could be a nightmare for colleges and the Education Department to carry out," Inside Higher Ed reports. "The draft measure, which already amounts to just shy of 700 pages even though it lacks three of the bill's 11 sections (on graduate education, new programs, and private student loans), is the product so far of intense negotiations between leaders of the House and Senate higher education committees as they try to knock out a compromise version of the legislation passed by their respective chambers. In many ways, the Higher Education Act bill (which at this point is in two thick spiral binders, and is not available online) represents the quintessential product of such a 'conference committee,' in that lawmakers and their staffs have sought to merge elements of often differing House and Senate bills into a cohesive whole."