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The University of Texas System Office of Federal Relations - News
News updates from federal agencies and congressional activity relevant to the UT System higher education community.

• Stronger Math and Science Education Key to Boosting U.S. Competitiveness, Witnesses Tell House Education Committee
  WASHINGTON, DC -- Improving the teaching and learning of mathematics and science in U.S. schools is vital to maintaining America’s global leadership, witnesses told the House Education and Labor Committee today. “America won’t be able to maintain our great legacy of innovation and discovery, let alone compete in today’s global economy, unless we make investing in math and science education a top priority,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the committee. “Last year, Congress took a critical first step by enacting legislation to provide workers with the training and skills needed to compete in 21st century jobs. Now we must build on that down payment by working with business leaders and key stakeholders to help arm students with an excellent foundation in math, science, and other cutting-edge fields.”
• Cornyn Backs Bill To Provide Enhanced Support To Border Law Enforcement
  WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Border Security and Refugees subcommittee, today announced his support for legislation that would significantly increase federal support for state and local law enforcement officials who are stationed along the nation’s borders. Sen. Cornyn is an original co-sponsor of the Border Law Enforcement Relief Act of 2008, introduced by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., which would set up a new grant program under the Department of Justice (DOJ) for border law enforcement relief, including funds to acquire needed law enforcement tools, technology and equipment, and to hire additional personnel.
• Sen. Hutchison Introduces $500 Million Border Law Enforcement Legislation
  WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), today filed legislation that would create a $500 million grant funding program at the U.S. Department of Justice with a direct focus on helping border communities fight narcoterrorism. “Our border law enforcement personnel are under assault and the Congress must provide the funding they need,” said Sen. Hutchison. “Federal funding for combating narcotics trafficking must focus on the communities along the border that are on the frontlines.” The Border Law Enforcement Relief Act of 2008 will create and authorize $100 million for each of the 2009-2013 fiscal years in federal grant funding, with two-thirds designated for border communities within 100 miles of the northern and southern borders. One-third of the grant funding will be designated for law enforcement agencies across the country that are affected by border-related criminal activity.
• Domenici To Offer Offshore Exploration Amendment to Reid Speculation Bill
  WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Pete Domenici, ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, today released the following statement regarding his plans to offer an offshore production amendment to S.3268, the Reid speculation bill:
• Care Needed in Lending to Students
  New York Times - When Gov. Eliot Spitzer appointed a high-level commission in May 2007 to assess the state’s public colleges and universities, one of the first items members agreed on was that New York should join some 40 other states to establish a low-cost student loan program. But as Mr. Spitzer’s successor, Gov. David A. Paterson, promised on Monday to ask the Legislature to create such a program, many critical questions remained about how it would be set up to ensure that it does not encourage unnecessary borrowing or undermine existing federal loan programs.
• Student Loans - The View on the Ground
  Inside Higher Ed - Politicians and the press have had plenty to say about the existence and severity of the student loan “credit crunch.” Now the people who actually know something are weighing in. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators on Tuesday released a survey of its members, offering the first systematic look at what student aid officers on campuses are actually seeing and doing about the real or perceived lack of student loans for their students. The survey also examines how colleges have responded to changes in federal and state laws and rules governing how institutions share information with students about their lending options, finding that most colleges have retained their lists of “preferred lenders,” but that those that have dropped them have done so because of the changes in the legal and regulatory picture.
• New Center Will Help Colleges Develop Their Study-Abroad Programs
  Chronicle of Higher Education - Washington — Colleges seeking help in expanding their study-abroad programs will soon have a new resource: the Center for Capacity Building in Study Abroad, a joint effort of Nafsa: Association of International Educators and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. In a news release, Nafsa and Nasulgc, as the groups are known, said they were starting the center in anticipation of the passage of the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act, which calls for a vast expansion in the number of American students who go abroad.
• New Lobbying Rules Mean More Scrutiny for Colleges and Their Lobbyists
  Chronicle of Higher Education - New federal ethics rules are creating headaches for colleges—and heartburn for their lobbyists. The rules, enacted last year in the wake of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, require colleges and lobbyists to report their political contributions and certify that they are in compliance with a new ban on gifts to members of Congress.
• Analyzing How Students Choose Colleges Is Key Topic at Meeting of Planners
  Chronicle of Higher Education - Defining students merely as "Millennials" is "a handy shorthand for the fact that kids today are different from us," says Ken Steele, senior vice president for education marketing at the Academica Group Inc., a consulting firm. But generalizations about plugged-in students don't get you very far in determining how they choose their colleges.
• Medicare Law May Yield Priorities for Health System Overhaul
  CQ Politics - Health policy analysts see many opportunities for eliminating wasteful spending on health care and improving quality at the same time, but lament a lack of funding for organizing these efforts. Now under a little-noticed provision of the new Medicare law (PL 110-275) blocking physician payment cuts, efforts to set national priorities for quality and efficiency gains will accelerate, those analysts say. The legislation provides $10 million a year from fiscal 2009 through 2012 from the Medicare trust funds to fund a process for setting priorities for improving health care quality and efficiency and for endorsing specific measures to meet those priorities.
• White House Mulls Last Approps Waltz
  Roll Call - While publicly urging Congress to “get its work done,” senior Bush administration officials privately say they are resigned to the prospect of Congress punting on most of the spending bills and passing a continuing resolution into the next administration. “I don’t know that we’ve got a strong preference” for how lengthy the CR is, said one senior White House official. “Even if they pass one into November, I expect they’ll just come in and extend it anyway.”
• 7 Texas Members Make an Emergency Landing
  Roll Call - A Continental Airlines flight carrying seven Members of the Texas Congressional delegation made an emergency landing in New Orleans Tuesday afternoon after the plane lost significant cabin pressure. Continental Airlines spokeswoman Julie King said there were no injuries on Flight 458, which was headed from Houston to Washington, D.C. A spokesman for Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas), who was a passenger on board the aircraft, said that all 118 passengers were instructed to put on oxygen masks during the emergency landing. The other members of the Texas delegation on board were Reps. John Carter (R), Henry Cuellar (D), Solomon Ortiz (D), Ron Paul (R), Ted Poe (R) and Ciro Rodriguez (D).
• Republicans Push for Showdown on Drilling
  Roll Call - The looming Sept. 30 expiration of the federal offshore drilling ban has Republicans eyeing a high-stak