Here’s a quick look at the news from last week (October 21 –  25) in Washington. 

BUDGET
The House/Senate Budget Conference Committee is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. Only opening statements are expected to be offered.

The Department of Education released its most updated program funding table reflecting the recently passed continuing resolution.

SENATE
The Senate was in recess last week.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold an Executive Session on October 30. At this session the committee will consider a reauthorization of the Older Americans Act nominations of the General Counsel and Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services of the Department of Education.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold a full committee hearing on October 31titled, “Attaining a Quality Degree: Innovations to Improve Student Success.”

HOUSE
The House of Representatives passed a bill (H.R. 2083, the Protecting Students from Sexual and Violent Predators Act) that requires states to conduct comprehensive background checks on any employee or potential employee who would have unsupervised access to children.

ADMINISTRATION
The U.S. Department of Education has rescheduled the second negotiated rulemaking session on gainful employment to November 18-20. The session was originally scheduled for October 21-23 and was rescheduled due to the government shutdown.

The U.S. Department of Education announced that they have approved the NCLB waiver request for Puerto Rico. With this approval 42 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the California CORE Districts now have NCLB waivers.

The National Center for Education Statistics released results from the 2011 NAEP-TIMSS Linking Study in mathematics and science at grade 8 for 52 states and 47 education systems, some international.

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES
Penn Hill Group provides a weekly list of grant opportunities, and summaries for select grants. Please visit our website for more information.