While the Higher Education Act, a congressional bill that has sweeping effects on students' financial aid packages, has not passed on schedule, this is no cause for worry, according to a congressional spokesman.
The Higher Education Act, which was originally passed in 1965, determines many federal regulations dealing with colleges and student financial aid. The bill was to be reauthorized by Sept. 30, which has not happened.
Cameron Johnson, spokesman for Rep. David Wu
(D-Ore.), said it is not unusual that the Act was not reauthorized by the initial date because it is a very large, "long and complex" piece of legislation that affects tens of
millions of people.
The Education and Workforce Committee, on which Wu serves, broke the bill into parts to consider, according to Johnson.
Wu has proposed a bill to allow Federal Work-Study funds to be given to students for off-campus internships that pertain to their majors.
He described the Act as an authorization bill that
sets up specific financial aid programs. Congress
authorizes the programs with funds for a specific
period of time.
"When the Act goes to the committee, we can add these bills as amendments," Johnson said. This part of the process is "a window to improve the laws because the Act is expired," he said.
If the Act expires, Congress can continue funding without reauthorizing the Act.
"Generally, large pieces of legislation like this are put on a six or seven year authorization cycle, but they get a new budget every year," Johnson said.
He said that the Act is currently sitting in committees in the House and Senate, and should be passed by the end of next year.
The legislation is very high on Congress' list of priorities, Johnson said. He said this is partly due to all the publicity the act has been receiving and partly due to constituents' interest.
"The price of college has risen astronomically, much faster than financial aid can keep up," Johnson said.
Johnson said the late reauthorization would not have any negative implications in the short term for financial aid in general.
Students receive federal financial aid by filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which requests financial information from the applicants. AU uses this form to help decide how much aid to give to each student.
Amy Gerber, AU's associate director of financial aid, previously said that about 2,348 undergraduate students received some form of financial aid in 2002. Last fall, AU had a total of 5,870 undergraduates.
Proposed amendments to the Act include amendments that would raise the maximum amount of federal Pell Grants, require colleges to tell parents when students are missing and deny federal aid to students who have taken part in hazing.
The anti-hazing amendment, proposed by Rep. Diane Watson, (D-Calif.), would cut off aid from these students for a year, according to Watson's legislative director, Bert Hammond.
"The bill is designed to create some kind of penalty at the federal level where a person who is engaging in those activities will receive some kind of prohibition," Hammond said.
Under this bill each university would be responsible for reporting these students to the Department of Education.
AU freshman Mary Kapsak believes this amendment would be hard to enforce.
"I think it would be hard for them to have a strict
definition of hazing," Kapsak said. "I think it's one of those issues that should be dealt with on a personal
basis within the University and it doesn't need to
be a national law"
