DC Shuttle …
Hearings/Markups of Interest
- The Senate Indian Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on COVID-19’s Impact on Native Education Systems on Wednesday, April 28 at 2:30 p.m.
- The House Science, Space and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on National Science Foundation Research on Wednesday, April 28 at 10 a.m.
- The House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing on Building Back Better on Wednesday, April 28 at 12 p.m.
College for All Legislation Introduced. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) introduced legislation to make four years of college or university free for most families. The College for All Act would also double the maximum Pell Grant award to nearly $13,000 and spend billions more on historically Black colleges and universities and programs for disadvantaged students. The legislation would be paid for by new taxes on stock and bond transactions. The bill would guarantee tuition-free community college for all students and allow students from families earning less than $125,000 to attend a public college or university for free. Sanders and Jayapal introduced similar legislation last Congress. Biden’s first budget proposal, released earlier this month, proposed a smaller increase in Pell Grant awards, up to $6,895.
Foreign Influence Bill Advances. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted almost unanimously to approve legislation designed to make long-term changes to how the country pursues “strategic competition” with China at home and around the world. The committee voted 21 to 1 to approve the legislation (S. 1169) from its chair, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and its ranking member, Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID). The legislation includes a provision that would require the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to review foreign financial contributions of more than $1 million to U.S. colleges and universities.
We publish the DC Shuttle each week Congress is in session featuring higher ed news from Washington collected by the New England Council, of which NEBHE is a member. This edition is drawn from the Higher Education Update in the Council’s Weekly Washington Report of April 26, 2021. For more information, please visit: www.newenglandcouncil.com.
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