August 15, 2016

Compiled by Penn Hill Group

HOUSE and SENATE

The House and Senate will be in recess until after the September 5^th Labor Day Holiday.

House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN) along with higher education subcommittee chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Education (ED) Secretary John King expressing their concerns with Federal Student Aid management and requesting additional information regarding ED’s single servicing proposal.

ADMINISTRATION

ED announced a new experimental sites opportunity for institutions of higher education on student loan counseling. The opportunity is designed to give institutions the flexibility to require more and different types of counseling for student loan borrowers.

ED announced final priorities under the Enhanced Assessment Grant (EAG) program, which seeks to improve States’ assessment systems. These priorities may be used for competitions using funds from fiscal year (FY) 2016 and later years.

The EAG program announced a competition for $8.6 million in funding to States to improve their testing systems. The competition is part of the Obama administration’s testing action plan. Applications are due September 22.

ED Undersecretary Ted Mitchell wrote a letter to college presidents requesting that they do not move any priority financial aid deadlines earlier than the deadlines used in recent years.

The Federal Communications Commission issued final rules to implement the Bipartisan Budget Act’s amendments to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act allowing for a limited number of monthly contacts to student loan borrowers on their mobile devices.

The White House released an Impact Report on the transformation of government services through technology and innovation, which includes College Scorecard and StudentLoans.gov/Repay as critical services.

The Department of Agriculture announced a notice of the annual adjustments to the maximum reimbursement rates and to the national average payments of National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs as well as to the rate of reimbursement for a half-pint of milk in the Special Milk Program for Children.

ED launched the #ReadWhereYouAre campaign to encourage reading outside of school.

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES 

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