[Oasfaa] Legislature update

[Jonna Raney]

Good morning folks!


As Legislative chair for OASFAA, I will periodically send email updates as to things going on in financial aid both on the federal level as well as the state level. Here's a few things I've learned this summer from being in D.C. and from reports from the OK State Regents training.


Federal stuff -

  1.  A bill was introduced earlier this week to eliminate Orig fees for student stafford loans. It's a bipartisan bill so there is some hope it could move through the process. NASFAA reached out to schools to encourage us to advocate for this bill on behalf of our students.
  2.  The Republicans and Democrats that we spoke with both agree (yep you read that right) that they will not reach an agreement on the HEA reauthorization this year. (So, they both agree that they won't agree? It's a start right?)

Things I was told by republican staffers and Senator Lankford:

A. Senator Alexander (retiring at the end of his term) wants to include major by major (program by program) reporting for all schools programs (title IV eligible programs). (This sounds a lot like GE type reporting, so....yuk. Keep in mind, If HEA reauth doesn't happen until after the election in 2020, Senator Alexander will be retired, so cross your fingers this idea doesn't get put in the reauth.)

B. Senator Lankford responded to my statement that we were there to talk about HEA reauth and other federal aid issues with a statement that the focus of the committee is Healthcare right now and then they will move to the HEA. (So...my interpretation? Not happening anytime soon.)

C. PLUS Loans are a bad investment for the government as the loans are made to many borrowers that have a low ability to pay and that ability doesn't generally improve because their student completes their program. It was stated that many believe the PLUS loan program should go away and those borrowers be pushed to the private market.

Things I was told by democrat staffers:

A. HEA reauth negotiations are underway but everything is secret as to what they are discussing in the room.

B. Same sentiment as republicans - PLUS Loans are a bad investment for the government as the loans are made to many borrowers that have a low ability to pay and that ability doesn't generally improve because their student completes their program. It was stated that many believe the PLUS loan program should go away and those borrowers be pushed to the private market.


State Stuff:

  1.  There are no major changes to OK programs! (Can I get a hardy Woohoo?)
  2.  There was discussion about how students who are over the $100K limit for OK Promise one year but under the limit (and therefore eligible for OK promise) will be caught. UPDATE: I spoke with Carol Alexander and she said they are discussing how this will be resolved and will let us know as soon as a process is determined.
  3.  Discussion about how the hours should be counted so that the 129 cap can be implemented in the most fair way for students. It was noted that if a school cannot award the full OK Promise award to a student because of COA limits, the claim should indicate the number of hours for which they are being paid. For example: A student is enrolled in 12 hours, but because of other aid, they only have room for the equivalent amount of 8 hours, the school should indicate on the claim form that student has 8 hours instead of the 12 as most have done in the past. This will help assure that only hours for which the student is paid are counted towards their 129 hour limit.


That's about it. I encourage everyone who are NASFAA members to subscribe to NASFAA news as well as keep up with IFAP announcements.


Have a great Thursday!

Jonna


[Oklahoma Baptist University]
Jonna Raney

Director of Student Financial Services

405.585.5020
Oklahoma Baptist University



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.onenet.net/pipermail/oasfaa/attachments/20190718/eff1e9fc/attachment.html>