CONGRESS           

House Education and the Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) wrote a letter to leaders at Northwestern University announcing that the Committee has launched a formal investigation into the college.

Chair Foxx wrote a letter to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) leaders requesting submission of several documents to the Committee in advance of the May 23 Committee hearing next week.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce released a report, titled “Investigative Update, The Antisemitism Advisory Group and Harvard’s Response: Clarity and Inaction.”

The House Appropriations Committee announced that it will begin marking up fiscal year (FY) 2025 appropriations bills next week. The Committee’s announced schedule has the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (LHHS) appropriations bill being considered in the LHHS Subcommittee on June 27 and in the Appropriations Full Committee on July 10. Additionally, the Committee announced that non-defense spending overall will be six percent below FY 2024 funding levels with the LHHS Subcommittee allocation totaling $184.564 billion.

The Bipartisan Senate AI Working Group – consisting of Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Senators Mike Rounds (R-SD), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Todd Young (R-IN) – published an AI policy roadmap that summarizes its findings from the nine AI Insight Forums it held in the Fall of 2023. It also outlines policy areas the group proposes to be considered by Congress moving forward, including those related to AI and the workforce.

The U.S. Department of Commerce issued a Department Administrative Order (DAO) to establish an agency education and workforce policy to ensure the integration of workforce development into Departmental strategic planning and programs, as well as a Department of Commerce Workforce Council (CWC) to further develop and oversee implementation of the DAO.

ADMINISTRATION

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) shared updates on the timeline for processing paper Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms, the implementation of school-initiated corrections through the FAFSA partner portal and the disbursement of Title IV Pell grants.

ED extended the deadline to June 30 for borrowers to consolidate their Direct Loans or Federal Family Education Loans for the purposes of benefiting from the agency’s payment count adjustment. ED also announced that the payment count adjustment is anticipated to be fully implemented in September 2024.

The White House announced new actions and resources related to reducing chronic absenteeism as part of its Every Day Counts Summit.

The White House unveiled principles related to the development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace.

EVENTS

Penn Hill Group plans on providing clients a summary of the following events next week:

May 21: Senate Committee on Finance Full Committee Hearing on “Child Savings Accounts and Other Tax-Advantaged Accounts Benefiting American Children.”

May 23: House Committee on Education and the Workforce Full Committee Hearing on “Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos.”

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES

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