House panel OKs student aid overhaul
WASHINGTON — The House Education and Labor Committee on Thursday voted 28-22 to approve a massive overhaul of federal student loans and other higher education programs that they touted as an overdue move to address the costs of higher education.
The 1,165-page measure earned no Republican support at the end of a markup that began Tuesday. Among numerous other provisions, it would expand Pell Grants, tweak the Federal WorkStudy Program, direct more aid to minority-serving institutions, emphasize campus safety and set several new requirements designed to impose tougher standards on for-profit colleges. It would also use federal aid to encourage states to offer tuition-free community college educations.
The measure represents the increasing importance of addressing student debt as a plank of the Democratic agenda. Throughout the debate on amendments, which concluded on Wednesday, Democrats praised the bill as a long-awaited solution to a $1.5 trillion student debt crisis and a necessary crackdown on schools with predatory practices.
Republicans expressed near-uniform opposition to the bill and offered dozens of amendments, most of which were rejected. They argued that the bill would pour money into programs that aren’t helping students and hamper institutions with excessive federal regulations.
“The so-called College Affordability Act will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, limit educational freedom, increase the cost of college for students and ignore the needs of those pursuing the American dream,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the panel’s ranking member. “The paternalism in this bill is really very strong.”
If enacted, the bill would be the first time the Higher Education Act has been comprehensively reauthorized since 2008, but action in the Senate has yet to happen. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is also working on reauthorization, and Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has cited it as a priority ahead of his 2020 retirement.
The Congressional Budget Office has not yet given the House bill a score, but Democratic committee staff say it would cost roughly $400 billion over 10 years.