TheWeekInCongress.com

Week Ending September 30, 2005

H.R.3863 To provide the Secretary of Education with waiver authority for the reallocation rules in the Campus-Based Aid programs, and to extend the deadline by which funds have to be reallocated to institutions of higher education due to a natural disaster.

Brief

   The bill would provide the Secretary of Education with some flexibility regarding Campus-Based Aid programs.

   Matching fund requirements, for example, could be waived such that hurricane impacted schools do not have to provide matching funds of capital contributions. Students accepted from the hurricane areas would also benefit from the waiver.

   Reallocation of funds would go to institutions that qualify under this bill. Generally, they would be schools in the Gulf Coast region impacted by Hurricane Katrina and schools that take in students from that area.

   The States affected by the bill would be Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Sponsor: Representative Bobby Jindal (LA-1^st)

Vote: Passed House by voice vote September 27, 2005

Cost to the taxpayers: "CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 3863 increases direct spending by $36 million over the 2006-2007 period. Enacting the legislation will not affect federal revenues."