July 12, 2005

Earlier this afternoon the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Labor, Health and Human Services and Education marked up their FY2006 appropriations legislation. The Subcommittee provided $66.1 million in funding for Perkins Loan Cancellations, but did not fund the Federal Capital Contribution. The full Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to mark up the bill on Thursday, July 14.

While COHEAO is disappointed that there was no funding for the Federal Capital Contribution, the fact that the Senate Appropriations Committee funded Perkins Loan Cancellations is a strong sign that these influential Senators believe the Perkins Loan Program should not be eliminated and should instead be reauthorized.

Tomorrow, the House Education and Workforce Committee, Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness will act on the Higher Education Act reauthorization bill, H.R. 609. This is the first substantive move on the legislation. We are cautiously optimistic that the legislation will continue to call for the reauthorization of the Perkins Loan program, but we will be watching carefully and monitoring the hearing very closely. The markup may not be completed until Thursday. We continue to expect that the full committee markup will take place next week, probably Wednesday. We will keep you informed of details as they become available.

Andrew Stringer
Legislative Associate
Washington Partners, LLC
(P) 202-289-3903
(F) 202-371-0197
astringer@wpllc.net