Here’s a quick look at the news from last week (December 31 –  January 4) in Washington.

ADMINISTRATION

The U.S. Department of Education released new proposed rules governing the implementation of Department grant programs as part of the Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR). The proposed rule allows the Department to receive more information from grantees on performance measures, baseline data and targets, which the Department says will improve the likelihood that the collection of data from a grant program effectively reflects the outcome. It will also allow the Secretary, through an announcement in the Federal Register, to authorize grantees under particular programs to award subgrants to directly carry out programmatic activities. The subgrantees and programmatic activities must be identified and described in the grantees’ applications. The proposed rule is open for comments through February 12, 2013.

HOUSE and SENATE

Republican and Democratic leadership have announced new rosters for the House Committee on Education & the Workforce. Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC) will chair the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, Rep. Phil Roe (TN) will chair the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, Rep. Todd Rokita (IN) will chair the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, and Rep. Tim Walberg (MI) will chair the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections. A list of all Committee members is here.

Senate Republican leadership also announced Committee membership for the 113^th Congress, including the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Senate Democrats updated their Committee assignments on Friday.

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) was re-elected as Speaker of the House by a vote of 220-192.

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) will be the new Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

BUDGET

Congress was able to reach a deal on the “fiscal cliff” last week. The legislation passed by Congress, and signed by the President, delays the budget sequester for two months, extends expiring tax cuts for a large majority of taxpayers and for certain education-related purposes, permanently prevents the Alternative Minimum Tax from applying to additional taxpayers, and provides a one-year delay in lower fees for Medicare providers (the so-called doc-fix). The legislation does not extend the existing Federal debt limit. This will essentially link the debates around the sequester, extension of the Federal debt limit, and final FY 2013 appropriations. The current Continuing Resolution funds the Federal government through March 27, 2013.