President George W. Bush signed the third Higher Education Extension Act into law on Oct. 2, allowing the act to continue with its current conditions and provisions until it expires next summer.
The previous extension would have expired on Sept. 30, causing all the important programs sponsored by the HEA to terminate as well.
However, this new law allows the current curricula to continue and “relieves Congress of the pressure to complete the larger reauthorization bill until June 2007,” said Della Cronin, vice president for legislative and public affairs for Washington Partners LLC, a government affairs public relations firm.
Upon completion, the HEA reauthorization bill will update the current HEA’s policies. Although the House has completed a reauthorization bill, the Senate is still working on its version. As such, Congress was forced to pass an extension in order to prevent programs under the control of the HEA — such as the Pell Grant program, federal work-study, the Perkins Loan program and the recently added Academic Competitiveness Grant —from expiring.
The HEA is the “biggest and largest piece of legislation that directly affects higher education in the United States,” UC Student Association President Bill Shiebler said.
Although Rep. Ric Keller (R-Fla.), who proposed the Higher Education Extension Act, did not respond to requests for comment, Cronin said that “since the [reauthorization] bill has not been approved by both chambers of Congress and the president, the [HEA] would have expired on Sept. 30 and nobody [wanted] that.”
Both Cronin and Shiebler agreed that the new extension will not significantly impact students’ lives because current policies were extended rather than amended.
However, Shiebler said that Congress, by extending the HEA rather than amending it through reauthorization, is “prolonging an environment that is not meeting the needs of the college students [because affordability for college has not been redefined]. For example, the Pell Grant has not been increased in the last six years.
“Congress [is] not willing to prioritize higher education,” Shiebler said.
Partisanship in the House adaptation of the reauthorization bill has held up the Senate’s version, according to Cronin.
Readers can contact Cynthia Law at [email protected].
