HOUSE and SENATE

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) introduced the FAFSA Simplification Act.

House Education and Labor Committee Chair Bobby Scott (D-VA) sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) threatening to subpoena documents related to its handling of the closure of Dream Center Education Holdings (Dream Center) earlier this year. The letter also indicated that the Committee has obtained documents depicting how ED justified the awarding of Federal aid to two Dream Center schools that were no longer accredited by retroactively converting those proprietary schools to nonprofit schools.

The Senate rejected a resolution that would have repealed the U.S. Department of Treasury’s final rule preventing taxpayers from avoiding the State and local tax (SALT) deduction cap in States where State and local taxes can be counted as charitable contributions by a 43 to 52 vote.

The House Education and Labor Committee will hold a markup on the College Affordability Act (H.R.4674), the House Democrats’ Higher Education Act reauthorization proposal, on Tuesday, October 29.

ADMINISTRATION

ED selected four institutions of higher education (IHEs) and three financial services companies to participate in its pilot program that would allow students to receive credit balances from their Federal student aid allocations after tuition and fees are debited by their IHEs.

A. Wayne Johnson resigned from his position as the Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer at ED’s Office of Federal Student Aid and announced his bid to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate. Johnson’s main campaign proposals are canceling up to $50,000 in student loan debt for each borrower, providing a tax credit for individuals who have previously repaid their student loans and additional grant aid.

A Federal district court held U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in contempt and fined ED $100,000 for violating a previous court order to halt collection on loans made to former Corinthian College students.

EVENTS

Penn Hill Group plans to provide clients with coverage of the following event next week:

• October 29: House Education and Labor markup of the College Affordability Act (H.R.4674) at 10:15am

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES 

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