Colleges with Federal Contracts Consider Biden Vaccine Order
Pennsylvania State University announced this week that it would require all employees at its flagship University Park campus to submit proof of vaccination against COVID-19 vaccination by Dec. 8 to comply with President Joe Biden’s order mandating vaccination for federal contractors. More than 700 universities have already announced vaccine mandates for employees, according to a tracker maintained by The Chronicle of Higher Education. But Penn State —which previously had resisted mandating COVID-19 vaccination for employees or students —may be among the first institutions to link an employee vaccination mandate to Biden’s Sept. 9 order requiring vaccination for federal contractors. The requirement for federal contractors, which allows for exemptions on medical or religious grounds, has expansive implications for universities that hold contracts with the U.S. government. ( Inside Higher Ed - Oct. 15, 2021)
| |
Department to Hold Loan Servicers to Higher Standards
The Department of Education is planning to increase its oversight of six loan servicing companies, beginning next year, by including stronger standards for performance, transparency and accountability in the servicers’ contract extensions. The new contract terms will allow the Office of Federal Student Aid to better monitor and address servicing issues as they arise, as well as hold servicers accountable for their performance, the department said Friday. The higher standards will apply to Great Lakes Educational Loan Services Inc., HESC/EdFinancial, MOHELA, Nelnet, OSLA Servicing and Navient, though Navient recently requested to transfer its contract to Maximus. FSA will start measuring loan servicers each quarter on how they manage customer service by monitoring caller wait times, their accuracy in processing borrower requests and how well they answer borrower questions. For servicers who fail to meet the performance standards, FSA may reduce the number of new student loan borrowers assigned to them or may deny them new loans. ( Inside Higher Ed - Oct. 18, 2021)
| |
BUDGET RECONCILIATION NEWS
| |
Biden Says He Won’t Get His Full Community College Plan
President Biden said Friday that he will probably not get the funds from Congress to make community colleges tuition-free, as he’s proposed. He was on a trip to Connecticut when he was asked by a reporter about the plan, and he said, “I don’t know of any major change in American public policy that’s occurred by a single piece of legislation . . . . And so, you know, I doubt whether we’ll get the entire funding for community colleges, but I’m not going to give up on community colleges as long as I’m president.” ( Inside Higher Ed - Oct. 18, 2021)
| |
Federal Agencies Release Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plans
Last week, more than 20 federal agencies released climate adaptation and resilience plans that outline how climate change will affect each agency and how each agency plans to become more climate resilient. According to a White House fact sheet, “Agencies face a multitude of risks caused by climate change, including rising costs to maintain and repair damaged infrastructure from more frequent and extreme weather events, challenges to program effectiveness and readiness, and health and safety risks to federal employees who work outside.” The Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and Department of Agriculture were among the agencies that released plans for what they’re doing to prepare for climate change. The plans were created in response to an executive order issued earlier this year by President Biden that directed federal agencies to implement a “government-wide” approach to limit climate pollution and increase resilience to the impacts of climate change. ( Association of American Universities - Oct. 15, 2021)
| |
Biden Signs Measure Raising the U.S. Debt Limit Until Dec. 3
President Joe Biden has signed a bill that provides a short-term increase in the U.S. debt limit, the White House said on Thursday night. His signature on the legislation, approved by the House on Tuesday night and narrowly by the Senate last week, averts the imminent threat of a financial calamity. But the bill allows the Treasury Department to meets its financial obligations only until roughly Dec. 3, meaning another bitter partisan confrontation will likely unfold in a matter of weeks. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a letter to Biden last week, said Republicans had helped prevent an immediate crisis but warned they wouldn’t cooperate with Democrats in raising the limit again. McConnell came under criticism from fellow Republicans, including Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and former President Donald Trump, after he agreed to produce enough votes to pass the Dec. 3 extension. ( Bloomberg - Oct. 14, 2021)
| |
Follow the Office of Federal Relations on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube!
| |
|