Weekly Legislative Highlights: October 22 through October 26, 2007
Updated October 29, 2007
*Funding Update – Senate’s Spending Bill Passes – Now, Onto Conference
*Another Co-Sponsor Added to NSBA-backed NCLB bill
*Second Round on S-CHIP
*House Passes Another Higher Ed Extension
*Federal Forest Land Payments to Schools
Funding Update: Senate’s Spending Bill Passes – Now, Onto Conference
Late Tuesday, October 23, the Senate passed its version of the Labor-Health, Human Services and Education Appropriations bill by a vote of 75-19. Thank you for contacting your senators regarding education funding!
The next step - The bill has to be conferenced with the House-passed version, with both chambers voting on the conference report. It is our understanding that the House and Senate leadership want to get the conference report completed as soon as possible. The Senate conferees have been named and a call to action went out this week to the respective states. The House is expected to name conferees the week of October 29. It is expected that Congress will pass a final bill and send it to the president by November 5.
Another Co-Sponsor Added to NSBA-backed NCLB bill
Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) inked his name as a co-sponsor of H.R. 648, the NSBA-backed No Child Left Behind Improvements Act of 2007. Jackson is the 9th co-sponsor of the bipartisan bill introduced by Representative Don Young (R-AK). This week brought no movement on NCLB in either the House or Senate education committees, although speculation continues that Chairman Miller (D-CA) could introduce a bill for markup soon. In the Senate, the committee has not yet released any further draft language for the key provisions in Titles I and II. For additional updates on NCLB, please visit NSBA’s advocacy website at www.nsba.org/advocacy.
Second Round on S-CHIP
On Thursday, October 26, the House quickly took up and passed a new version of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) bill, H.R. 3963, aimed at addressing some of the concerns raised by moderate Republicans who voted against the first bill but support the program.
Thanks in part to school board members’ advocacy efforts, the newest version of the S-CHIP bill includes a provision that would prohibit the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from barring Medicaid reimbursements to schools for administrative and transportation related expenses until January 1, 2010. This moratorium is significantly longer than a similar provision included in the original bill.
The vote on the legislation was 265-142—still shy of the 2/3 majority needed to override a likely Presidential veto. No new House Republicans voted for the bill. The bill heads to the Senate next week where it is possible changes may be made in order to attract additional supporters and secure presidential approval.
NSBA will continue to keep you apprised of progress on this legislation.
House Passes Another Higher Ed Extension
While the Senate already passed its own reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (S. 1642), the House has yet to move forward on a bill, prompting it this week to pass the Third Higher Education Extension Act of 2007 (H.R. 3927). This will temporarily extend the program until April 30, 2008. The Senate is expected to follow suit since the current extension expires at the end of this month.
Federal Forest Land Payments to Schools
The bill numbers for the “Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act” reauthorization are as follows: H.R. 17, H.R. 1635, S. 380, and S. 779. These are all pending in the House Agriculture Committee and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Although the fund has been extended until the end of the year, reauthorization of the law is needed in order to continue the fund for school districts and local governments, which operates a payment in lieu of taxes (revenues). Please urge your senators and representatives to co-sponsor the legislation and ensure that the fund is extended before the end of this Congressional session. If not, the loss in revenue to schools and local governments will be significant.