BUDGET RECONCILIATION NEWS
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House Science Committee Advances Budget Reconciliation Package
The House Science Committee approved its portion of a massive budget reconciliation spending bill Sept. 9, making no major changes to its NASA provisions. The full committee voted 21-17 after a daylong markup to advance its portion of the package, allocating $45.51 billion to agencies under its jurisdiction, including NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation. The bill would provide NASA with nearly $4.4 billion in additional funding, with $4 billion set aside for NASA infrastructure improvements. Climate change projects would get $388 million and NASA cybersecurity $7 million. The bill, though, provided no funding for NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program, notably lunar lander development. In testimony this spring to Congress, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said he was seeking $5.4 billion to fund a second Human Landing System award and a similar amount to upgrading aging NASA facilities. ( SpaceNews - Sept. 10, 2021)
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How Biden’s New Vaccination Policy Affects Colleges
Thousands of colleges could be subject to a new federal rule mandating Covid-19 vaccination or testing for large private-sector employers, the Biden administration announced on Thursday. The Department of Labor’s emergency, temporary rule will require all employees of businesses with 100 or more workers to be vaccinated or to be tested weekly. That mandate will cover more than 80 million workers nationwide, including many of the four million people who work on college campuses. According to federal data, 1,351 private postsecondary institutions employ 100 or more full-time and part-time workers. It’s not yet clear how Biden’s plan will apply to other private colleges or to public colleges. Many higher-education institutions are also federal contractors, and Biden also announced on Thursday that federal workers and contractors would be required to get vaccinated, with no ability to opt for regular testing instead. Private-sector employers could be fined up to $14,000 per violation if they don’t comply with the federal rule . . . . ( The Chronicle of Higher Education - Sept. 9, 2021)
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An ‘Extremely Solvable’ Problem
Lawmakers and advocates are urging the federal government to do more to address hunger on college campuses, with some appearing frustrated about the lack of action during a roundtable discussion held by a House committee Wednesday. The roundtable was a part of a series of hearings examining hunger in the United States, convened by Representative James McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, chair of the House Rules Committee. McGovern has been pushing for the White House to convene a national conference on food, nutrition, hunger and health —the first and only conference was held 52 years ago —and said Wednesday that he believes there’s a bigger role for the federal government to play on the issue. There are open questions about which committee has jurisdiction over issues of food insecurity on college campuses, so the Rules Committee was the ideal forum because of its broad reach, noted Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, a Democrat from Pennsylvania. ( Inside Higher Ed - Sept. 10, 2021)
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Education Department Updates Rules and Criminal Penalties for Accessing Agency Data
The Education Department is rolling out new rules for accessing and handling agency data by third parties—including students, parents and loan companies—with updated criminal penalties for anyone not following the new statutes. The new rules intend to bring the department into compliance with the 2019 Stop Student Debt Relief Scams Act and the 2020 revision to the Higher Education Act of 1965, which “explicitly makes unauthorized access to the department’s IT systems and the misuse of identification devices issued by the department a criminal act,” according to a notice set to publish Friday in the Federal Register. The update defines an access device as any “card; plate; code; account number; electronic serial number; mobile identification number; other telecommunications service, equipment or instrument identifier; or other means of account access that can be used alone or in conjunction with another access device to obtain money, goods, services or any other thing of value or to initiate a transfer of funds.” ( Nextgov - Sept. 9, 2021)
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Data Shows Only 20 Percent of Applicants for a Student Loan Forgiveness Program Will Receive Relief by 2026
Low approval rates have plagued a popular student loan forgiveness program for public servants, and data from the company overseeing the federal initiative shows not much will change in the coming years. There are about 1.3 million people pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a program that cancels federal student debt after 10 years of on-time payments for people who take public-sector jobs. But just 1 in 5 of those borrowers are on track to secure relief by 2026, according to an analysis released Thursday by the Student Borrower Protection Center. The advocacy group analyzed monthly projections of approvals obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA), a state financial aid agency that manages the forgiveness program for the U.S. Education Department. The organization says the 20 percent success rate is an indictment of the program and those charged with managing it, as so few people will be positioned for relief nearly two decades after its inception. ( The Washington Post - Sept. 9, 2021)
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White House Takes Trump Appointees off Military Academy Boards
Eighteen individuals appointed to the boards of military academies by the Trump administration have been forced out of their positions by the White House, according to Biden administration officials. A White House spokesperson said the appointees either resigned or were terminated from their positions. Of the 18, several were top officials in former president Trump's administration, including his senior counselor Kellyanne Conway; his first press secretary, Sean Spicer; his second national security adviser, Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster; and Russell T. Vought, former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. They were removed from the boards because the administration wants nominees and board members who are "qualified to serve" and "aligned with the values of this administration," said Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary. ( Inside Higher Ed - Sept. 10, 2021)
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