01.31.18

By: Michael Stratford
Source: Politico

Scott Slams 'Partisan' House Higher Education Bill But Sees Compromise Possible

Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House education committee, today slammed House Republicans for advancing a “partisan” overhaul of the Higher Education Act but said he still thought a bipartisan rewrite is possible.

“The Republican bill spends lots of money by expanding eligibility for federal dollars to low-quality and unregulated programs,” he said at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation’s annual conference. “And it pays for that spending by slashing investments in students.”

The House education committee last year approved a rewrite of the Higher Education Act, H.R. 4508 (115)on a party-line vote. Rep. Virginia Foxx, the panel’s Republican chair, said Tuesday that Republicans had to go it alone because Scott “made it clear to me that it was primarily more money that we needed” and “there isn't any more money out there to spend.”

Scott responded today by saying that if he were to write “a Democrat-only HEA, it would spend more: more grant aid, more institutional aid, and better loan terms for student and parent borrowers.”

Going forward, Scott said, it was “possible to produce a bipartisan HEA that spends the same amount we currently spend, but in a more equitable fashion.”

“But I’ll tell you what is not possible: a bipartisan bill that cuts federal student aid to send taxpayer dollars to corporate interests,” he added.

While the House GOP bill awaits a floor vote, the leaders of the Senate education committee are in talks to produce a bipartisan version of a bill to update the law. The committee’s chairman, Sen. Lamar Alexander, has said he plans to write a bill in the “next few weeks.”