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ICCTA Action Alert
May 24, 2002
The following legislative update was prepared by the Association of Community College Trustees.
Washington Update
What’s New: March 24, 2002
Congress Addressing the Pell Grant Shortfall
One of ACCT’s main legislative priorities is securing funds to erase
a serious shortfall in the Pell Grant program of more than $1 billion.
The shortfall is a result of an unexpectedly high participation rate in
the program due to increased enrollment in higher education and
greater participation by needy students.
The House of Representatives is considering amendments to the
Fiscal Year 2002 supplemental bill, H.R. 4775, which includes
$1 billion for the Pell grant shortfall.
The Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version of the
supplemental on May 23, which also included $1 billion for the
Pell grant shortfall. The Senate will take up the Supplemental
after the Memorial Day Recess.
All ACCT member trustees are encouraged to contact their
Members’ District offices during the Memorial Day recess and urge
them to pass a supplemental appropriations bill that provides
$1 billion for the Pell Grant shortfall. Unless this emergency funding
is approved, Pell Grant awards could be reduced, harming needy
students attending community colleges.
House Welfare Reform Legislation Restricts Education and
Training Activities
On May 16 the House of Representatives passed the "Personal Responsibility,
Work and Family Promotion Act" (H.R. 4737), which renews the 1996
welfare reform law, by a vote of 229-197. The legislation largely reflects
the White House proposal and makes several changes that would
seriously restrict community college efforts in assisting people to
transition from dependency to self-sufficiency.
Specifically,
H.R. 4737 would change the current work requirements
under the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) provisions
to mandate a 40-hour work week for assistance recipients, while
removing time spent in vocational education and training programs
from the group of activities that could be counted as "work." This
undermines ACCT’s priority to maintain and increase the amount of
time TANF recipients can pursue educational programs in order to
transition successfully from dependency to self-sufficiency.
Additionally, H.R. 4737 permits states flexibility to redirect monies
through a device know as a "Superwaiver." While ACCT was
successful in preventing Perkins Vocational Education state block
grants from being included in the superwaiver, the bill passed by
the House permits states to redirect Adult Education and Literacy
state grants to other purposes.
On the Senate side, a group of 11 Senators are working to craft an
alternative Welfare Reform package. Additionally, Senator Olympia
Snowe (R-ME) introduced S.2552, "The Pathways to Self Sufficiency
Act of 2002" which is based on the Maine "Parents as Scholars"
program. The bill was introduced May 22, and referred to the
Senate Finance Committee. The bill would permit up to 24 months
of vocational education and training to count as work under TANF.
Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) is planning to introduce a TANF
bill that also includes the majority of changes sought by ACCT.
There is a possibility that a number of key Senators will also
align themselves with the Snowe proposal.
ACCT’s priorities for Welfare Reform include:
- Allowing at least 24 months of education and/or training to be
counted as an approved "work" activity;
- Ensuring that ALL higher education programs, not just vocational
training, in the list of education activities that can count towards
a recipient's work requirement;
- Eliminating the cap on the percentage of a state's TANF recipients
who are able to participate in educational activities and count toward
meeting the state work participation rate; and
- Allowing time spent on education and training to not count against
participants’ lifetime or consecutive benefit time limits.
IRS Issues New Rules on Hope and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits
The Internal Revenue Service proposed new rules April 29 that would
implement changes sought by ACCT and the higher education
community simplifying the reporting requirements for the Hope
and Lifetime Learning tax credits.
The new rules eliminate an original requirement enacted in 1997,
but never fully implemented, that had colleges report to IRS the name,
address, and Social Security number of anyone who could claim
a student as a dependent for tax purposes. ACCT has long argued
that collecting and furnishing such information to the IRS was
both costly and inappropriate.
The proposal also permits institutions to report either the total
amount of college-related expenses charged to each student, or
the total amount of payments each student had made to the institution.
The proposed rules also exempt colleges from giving the IRS reports
on certain students who are not eligible to receive the tax credits
because their education costs are fully covered by scholarships
or by an employer, or because they are taking only noncredit courses.
This greatly simplifies the collection process and eliminates
the need for colleges to discern the source of payments made
by on on behalf of a student.
The new rules are set to take effect for college expenses paid or
billed during the 2003 calendar year that must be reported on
federal tax forms that are filed in 2004. The IRS is accepting
public comments on the regulations until July 29.
For additional information on federal issues, contact J. Noah Brown, ACCT's Director of Public Policy, at 202-775-4667.
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Illinois Community College Trustees Association
401 E. Capitol Ave., Suite 200
Springfield, IL 62701-1711
217-528-2858 (phone)
217-528-8662 (fax)
ICCTA@communitycolleges.org (e-mail)
http://www.communitycolleges.org |
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