 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Thursday, December 22, 2005
|
|
Katrina-Damaged Colleges to Get $200-Million, as Hurricane-Relief Bill Clears Final Hurdle in Senate
By KELLY FIELD and JEFFREY SELINGO
 Printer friendly |
 article |
 Subscribe |
 Order reprints |
|
|
|||
 |
Discuss any Chronicle article in our forums | ||
Congress approves final 2006 spending plan for student aid and NIH research
Pentagon budget for basic research gets a trim, as legislation would cut nearly all federal spending by 1%
Katrina-damaged colleges to get $200-million, as hurricane-relief bill clears final hurdle in Senate
Patriot Act gains 5-week extension after new votes in Congress; talks to resume in 2006 on long-term renewal
Senate passes vast bill to cut billions in student loans, but some provisions favor borrowers' interests
U. of California retains contract to run Los Alamos lab, with 3 corporate partners
Federal judge rules, in strongly worded opinion, that teaching intelligent design is unconstitutional
The U.S. Senate approved $200-million in hurricane-relief funds for colleges in Louisiana and Mississippi on Wednesday night as part of a larger appropriations bill for the Defense Department in 2006 that includes $29-billion in total for the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast.
The House of Representatives has already passed the defense appropriations bill, but it is scheduled to return today in a pro-forma session to approve the bill again after the Senate stripped out a controversial provision in the original House legislation that would have allowed drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (see accompanying article).
That provision almost derailed months of lobbying on behalf of higher-education leaders to garner federal aid for institutions affected by Hurricane Katrina. While college officials were relieved that Congress had finally acted, they were not entirely satisfied with the result. For one thing, the total aid package is $300-million less than what they had sought. It is also equally split between Louisiana and Mississippi, even though Louisiana colleges suffered much more damage.
"While our needs were far greater, we're just grateful," said Cynthia A. Littlefield, director of federal relations at the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.
Becky Timmons, director of government relations at the American Council on Education, also described colleges as "grateful" for the federal aid Congress had voted to dole out. Still, she said, "I don't think there's quite enough money ... so we're going to have more work to do when we come back in January."
Publicly, college lobbyists were reserved in their comments about the distribution of funds between Louisiana and Mississippi, knowing that the federal aid would probably not have even been attached to the defense bill without the help of Sen. Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican who is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Trent Lott, another Republican from Mississippi.
"It was very likely this or nothing," Ms. Timmons said.
The bill, which President Bush is expected to sign, would give $95-million each to the statewide higher-education governing boards in Louisiana and Mississippi. For Mississippi, the legislative language calls for the funds to be used for additional student aid. For Louisiana, the bill language is broader, saying that the money can be used for student aid, faculty salaries, or any purpose authorized by the Higher Education Act.
Lawmakers said, however, that the funds should be reserved for those institutions that were forced to suspend operations for at least 30 days because of the hurricane and should supplement, not replace, state appropriations for public colleges.
The remaining $10-million in the bill will go to the U.S. Department of Education to be distributed to colleges that accepted students displaced by the hurricane and did not charge them tuition.
Issues in depth: