Here’s a quick look at the news from last week (November 4 – 8).

SENATE 
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold a full committee hearing on Thursday, November 14 on “Ensuring Access to Higher Education: Simplifying Federal Student Aid for Today’s College Student.” The hearing is part of a series of hearings on reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, and the committee is soliciting input from stakeholders on each hearing topic as it is scheduled. Recommendations around financial aid can be sent to hea_reauth113@help.senate.gov in advance of next week’s hearing.

The 2014 Senate schedule was announced by the Senate Democratic leadership and the Senate will convene the second session of this Congress on January 6, 2014. A target adjournment date was not announced.

HOUSE
The House was in recess last week.

The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology will hold a subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, November 13 on “Keeping America FIRST: Federal Investments in Research, Science, and Technology at NSF, NIST, OSTP and Interagency STEM programs.”

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce will hold two full committee hearings this week:

• Wednesday, November 13 on “Keeping College Within Reach: Simplifying Federal Student Aid.”
• Thursday, November 14 to discuss “The Effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on Schools, Colleges, and Universities.

ADMINISTRATION
The U.S. Department of Education held the first of their four scheduled public forums on the President’s proposed college ratings system last week. Three additional forums will be held in Louisiana, Iowa and Virginia over the next two weeks, as well as a number of town halls in other locations.

The U.S. Department of Education announced the 25 highest-rated applications for the fourth round of the Investing in Innovation (i3) competition. These applicants will have until December 11, 2013 to secure matching funds in order to receive the funding. The applicants include seven validation grants and eighteen development grants.

The U.S. Department of Education has extended the deadline for states with No Child Left Behind waivers to apply for extra time to implement their teacher evaluation systems. The deadline was October 31, and has been moved to November 22.

The Department of Education has posted pre-session materials for the November 18-20 Negotiated Rulemaking session on gainful employment.

The press is reporting that Ericka M. Miller will be nominated as the Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education. She is currently Vice President for Operations at the Education Trust. 

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