The House and Senate are both in session this week.  Last week, the House & Senate budget committees released their FY14 budgets.  Below are the details of the budget pertinent to higher education and Clemson University.  This week, the House will meet to take up the budget for FY14 and the Senate will meet to debate and vote on the Continuing Resolution for FY13. 

Senate Budget - Highlights for Higher Education

A deficit-neutral reserve fund for higher education:

• allows for the Budget Chairman to revise funding allocations making higher education more accessible and affordable, including legislation to increase college enrollment and completion rates for low-income students. 

Investing in education and a skilled workforce:

• recognizes the growing importance of postsecondary education;
• calls upon Congress to enact legislation to reduce college costs while expanding college access and completion;
• maintains a strong commitment to the Pell Grant program;
•  eliminates the student loan fee increases from sequestration, keeps student loans affordable by retaining subsidized loans and repayment programs, and facilitates passage of legislation to ensure student loan interest rates remain affordable;
• health care workforce training – continues to fund programs to educate and train the next generation of health care providers, including funding for the National Health Service Corps to increase health professionals practicing in medically underserved areas;
• eliminates sequestration’s cuts to research and education and replaces them in a more balanced way.  

Investing in clean energy jobs and 21st century energy production:

• provides for increased federal investments in energy research and development at national labs and ARPA-E;
• supports deployment and commercialization of new energy technologies;
• invests in energy efficiency.  

Investing in 21st century manufacturing:

• supports the development of a network of collaborative manufacturing innovation centers that will accelerate technology deployment, conduct critical research and development, and inform demand‐driven education and training (NNMI);
• supports public‐private partnerships to accelerate the development and commercialization of advanced composite materials for application across a wide variety of industries.  

House Budget – Highlights for Higher Education

Higher education and job-training in brief:

• Encourage policies that promote innovation.  The budget recommends removing regulatory barriers in higher education that restrict flexibility and innovative teaching, particularly as it relates to non-traditional models such as online coursework
• Adopt a sustainable maximum-award level for Pell.  The budget recommends maintaining the maximum award for the 2012–2013 award year of $5,645 in each year of the budget window to get program costs back to a sustainable level.
• Ensure aid for higher education is targeted to the truly needy.  The budget calls for reversing the changes made in the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 [CCRAA].
• Update accounting rules to reflect the true cost of federal loan programs.  The budget authorizes the use of fair-value accounting for any legislation dealing with federal loan and loan-guarantee programs to more fully account for the cost of the risk to the taxpayer of the direct-loan program.
• Eliminate ineffective and duplicative federal education programs.  The budget calls for reorganization and streamlining of K–12 programs and anticipates major reforms to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act [ESEA], including the termination/reduction of programs failing to improve student achievement and duplication of teacher quality programs.
• Consolidate job-training programs, based on reforms in the SKILLS Act, and provide for a career-scholarship fund.  The budget calls for the consolidation of duplicative federal job-training programs into more targeted career-scholarship programs and would close chronically low-performing Job Corps centers.  

Energy in brief:

• Restore competition to the energy sector with the goal of energy independence.  The budget retains basic energy research and development spending, but it would end funding for energy projects nearing commercial-scale, specifically targeting renewable energy development.  The budget also would rescind unobligated balances from the DOE loan guarantee program.
• Stop the government from buying up unnecessary land.  The budget directs 70 percent of the proceeds of land sales, net of expenses, to be used for deficit reduction.  

Cutting spending in brief:

•  Cap spending.  The budget would strive to reduce spending through efforts to scale back funding for agencies “whose recent budgetary increases have fueled crony politics and government overreach that has weakened confidence in the nation’s institutions and its economy.”
• Eliminate waste.  The budget would eliminate dozens of wasteful and duplicative programs identified by non-partisan watchdogs and government auditors.  The budget specifically calls for a re-examination of federal agricultural programs that spend billions each year, including current farm-support programs, such as the fixed payments to farmers irrespective of price levels and the structure of the crop-insurance programs. 

For more information on Clemson’s Federal initiatives, please contact Katy Bayless (Bayless@clemson.edu).