HOUSE and SENATE

The House passed a disaster relief package on a 354 to 58 vote, which the President subsequently signed into law. The bill provides $165 million in funding for schools and institutions of higher education (IHEs) and $55 million for Head Start programs affected by recent natural disasters.

The House passed the American Dream and Promise Act (H.R. 6) on a 237 to 187 vote, with seven Republicans joining Democrats in voting for the bill (no Democrats voted against the bill). The bill would provide conditional permanent resident status and a pathway to citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.

The House is expected to vote on its Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) appropriations bill next week, as part of a five-appropriations bill minibus. The LHHS bill would be combined with the Defense, Energy and Water, State and Foreign Operations, and Legislative Branch appropriations bills.

ADMINISTRATION

At a House Education and Labor Subcommittee hearing, Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education Frank Brogan announced that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has created a Disaster Recovery Unit, which will dedicate five full-time staff toward ED’s disaster response efforts.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that it will stop faxing tax transcripts to taxpayers and third parties as of June 28, and will stop mailing Forms 4506, 4506-T and 4506T-EZ, which are often used to verify income for student financial aid, to third parties starting July 1.

ED posted the agenda, time and location for the July 30-31, 2019 meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI).

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) completed its review of the proposed accreditation regulations that the recent negotiated rulemaking committee reached consensus on, which will soon be released as a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and be subject to public comment.

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES 

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