Legislative Update: Good News for Higher Ed in '98 Federal Budgets. Columbia University Record, November 21, 1997

Ellen Smith, assistant vice president, represents and informs the Univesity on issues such as financial aid, Medicare and Medicaid, research funds and tax policies as they pertain to higher education.

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The Federal Relations Web is accessible on the Administration and Index pages of ColumbiaWeb.


VOL. 23, NO. 10	NOVEMBER 21, 1997

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

Good News for Higher Ed in '98 Federal Budgets

BY ELLEN SMITH

niversities fared well for fiscal year 1998 in the research and education areas.

After a massive infusion of funds through the tax bill, Congress also agreed to raise the maximum Pell Grant for our neediest students to $3,000.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) received an increase of more than seven percent. Previous updates noted the increases in funding for National Science Foundation, EPA, DOD and the Energy Department. The National Endowment for the Humanities remained intact with essentially level funding of $110.7 million.

Prospects for research and education funding during the second session of the 105th Congress, beginning in late January of 1998, look good if a bill (S 1305) introduced by Sens. Phil Gramm (R.-Tex.), Pete Domenici (R.-N.M.) and Joe Lieberman (D.-Conn.) progresses. It would double non-defense research funding in ten years. Another NIH bill—"National Institutes of Health Trust Fund Act" (S 1411)—was introduced by Sens. Connie Mack (R.-Fla.) and Tom Harkin (D.-Ia.). It would disallow tobacco company tax deductions for settlements and judgments and use the funds for establishing a National Trust Fund for Biomedical Research. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D.-Mass.) also introduced bills that would direct more funding to the NIH.

Also during the second session of the 105th Congress, the Higher Education Act Reauthorization will be high on the agenda. Areas likely to be considered in the final bill in addition to student aid are the recommendations of the Cost Commission, issues related to alcohol policies on campus, Title IX reporting, campus crime reporting (including hate crime reporting) and student borrowing histories.

Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Labor and Human Resources, will speak in the Kellogg Center of the International Affairs Building on Dec. 8. The speech is free and open to all Columbians.

For additional information, please contact Ellen S. Smith, Assistant Vice President and Director of Federal Relations, ess9@columbia.edu.