NewsToday's DCbrief - Jan. 5, 2010
- IN THE NEWS:
Opening Day for Lawmakers: Republicans: The New House Majority Will Waste No Time Targeting Obama's Initiatives
By Paul Kane | Washington Post | Jan. 5, 2011President Obama Signs COMPETES Act
By Gautham Nagesh | The Hill | Jan. 4, 2011Critic of Obama Policies Will Lead Higher-Education Panel in U.S. House
By Kelly Field and Derek Quizon | Chronicle of Higher Education | Jan. 4, 2011ACE, Research Groups Submit Supreme Court Brief Supporting Stanford in Patent Case
From the American Council on Education | Jan. 4, 2011Government Sees High Returns on Defaulted Student Loans
By Melissa Korn | Wall Street Journal | Jan. 4, 2011>U.S. Alters Rule on Paying for End-of-Life Planning
By Robert Pear | New York Times | Jan. 4, 2011E-Verify on the Leading Edge of House Republicans' Immigration Plans
By Theo Emery | Congressional Quarterly | Jan. 4, 2011HHS Opens Registration for E-Health Records Incentive Program
By Brian Kalish | Nextgov | Jan. 3, 2011Tax-Exempt Pedicures
By David Moltz | Inside Higher Ed | Jan. 5, 2011
Opening Day for Lawmakers: Republicans: The New House Majority Will Waste No Time Targeting Obama's Initiatives
By Paul Kane | Washington Post | Jan. 5, 2011
Almost as soon as they take control of the House at noon Wednesday, Republicans will embark on a 20-day plan aimed at undoing major aspects of President Obama's agenda as they seek to take advantage of the weeks before the Senate's return and the president's State of the Union address. The first move will come Friday, when the House begins the process of repealing the new health-care law. House leaders will then quickly begin to identify tens of billions of dollars in proposed spending cuts and to ease regulations that businesses find burdensome. Much of what Republicans do will be symbolic, given that Democrats still control the Senate and the White House. But the quick action will allow Rep. John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, the incoming speaker, and House Republicans to follow through on campaign pledges and to try to establish their party as a bulwark against what they see as an out-of-control government. MORE
President Obama Signs COMPETES Act
By Gautham Nagesh | The Hill | Jan. 4, 2011
President Obama signed the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Reauthorization Act of 2010 on Tuesday, ending a year-long battle over extending research grants prized by the technology community. According to the White House the bill "reauthorizes various programs intended to strengthen research and education in the United States related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics." The Act also distributes a significant portion of research funding through a series of contests, most of which will be posted on Challenges.gov. The Obama administration has emphasized distributing financing through contests in hopes of increasing the amount of publicity and the range of participants eligible for federal research funding. MORE
Critic of Obama Policies Will Lead Higher-Education Panel in U.S. House
By Kelly Field and Derek Quizon | Chronicle of Higher Education | Jan. 4, 2011
U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who has questioned some of President Obama's education priorities, will lead the higher-education subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 112th Congress, the congresswoman announced on Tuesday. Rep. Foxx, a former community-college president and professor, said in a statement that she was "excited to roll up my sleeves and work toward making our higher-education system even better while carefully stewarding taxpayer dollars." In an interview with The Chronicle, Foxx said she did not seek out the post and does not yet have an agenda. But she implied that she would not shield higher-education programs from spending cuts, and she raised doubts about the need for community colleges to produce five million more graduates with degrees or certificates by 2020, as President Obama has urged. MORE
ACE, Research Groups Submit Supreme Court Brief Supporting Stanford in Patent Case
From the American Council on Education | Jan. 4, 2011
The American Council on Education (ACE) has joined with a coalition of higher education and research organizations and more than 40 higher education institutions to submit an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Stanford University in a case that could have serious ramifications for university ownership of patents stemming from federally funded research. The case, Stanford University v. Roche Molecular Systems, involves several patents used to quantify HIV in blood samples developed by scientists conducting National Institutes of Health-funded research at Stanford. The primary focus of the case is the interpretation of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, also known as the University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act. Stanford first filed suit for patent infringement against Roche in 2005. A federal district court denied Roche's claim that it owned the intellectual property in question, but the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, saying that the university lacked complete ownership of the patents due to the specific wording of an agreement Stanford required researchers to sign. MORE
Government Sees High Returns on Defaulted Student Loans
By Melissa Korn | Wall Street Journal | Jan. 4, 2011
Defaulting on federal student loans may not be such a bad thing -- at least, not for the federal government. After paying the companies that actually collect the loans and other costs, the U.S. Department of Education expects to recover 85% of defaulted federal loan dollars based on current value. The recovery figures are quite generous when compared with other corners of consumer debt. Banks, for example, often retrieve less than 10 cents on the dollar from overdue credit cards. According to White House budget figures for fiscal 2011 ending in September, the federal government expects gross recovery of between $1.10 and $1.22 for every dollar of defaulted student loans. An estimated $49.9 billion of Federal Family Education Loan and Federal Direct Lending Program loans are in default, out of a total $713.4 billion outstanding, as of Sept. 30. The strong loan return rates may prove awkward for the federal government, which is instituting regulations on for-profit colleges. MORE
U.S. Alters Rule on Paying for End-of-Life Planning
By Robert Pear | New York Times | Jan. 4, 2011
The Obama administration, reversing course, will revise a Medicare regulation to delete references to end-of-life planning as part of the annual physical examinations covered under the new health care law, administration officials said Tuesday. The move is an abrupt shift, coming just days after the new policy took effect on Jan. 1. Many doctors and providers of hospice care had praised the regulation, which listed “advance care planning” as one of the services that could be offered in the “annual wellness visit” for Medicare beneficiaries. While administration officials cited procedural reasons for changing the rule, it was clear that political concerns were also a factor. The renewed debate over advance care planning threatened to become a distraction to administration officials who were gearing up to defend the health law against attack by the new Republican majority in the House. MORE (log-in may be required)
E-Verify on the Leading Edge of House Republicans’ Immigration Plans
By Theo Emery | Congressional Quarterly | Jan. 4, 2011
The presumed next chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration has been vague so far about the GOP immigration agenda, but he is clear on one priority: expanding use of a Web-based system to ensure that workers are in the country legally. The signals from Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and incoming Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, suggest Republicans will move quickly to try to expand E-Verify, a federal program used to check on the work status of prospective employees which has fierce critics and supporters. King called legislation to provide incentives for companies to use the program voluntarily "the most important piece of legislation that I think could be moved" in the upcoming Congress. The measure he favors would create tax penalties for companies that do not use E-Verify and are found to employ illegal immigrants, while providing safe harbor to companies that do use it . . .
*** Congressional Quarterly is available to subscribers only; VU faculty and staff may request a copy of this article from the VU Office of Federal Relations.
HHS Opens Registration for E-Health Records Incentive Program
By Brian Kalish | Nextgove | Jan. 3, 2011
Registration began Monday for health care professionals and hospitals to participate in the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department's Medicare and Medicaid electronic-health records incentive programs. Doctors who adopt, implement, upgrade or demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health records will be eligible for Medicaid payments of up to $63,750 over six years, and Medicare bonuses of as much as $44,000 over five years. For hospitals, the incentives start at a $2 million base payment for both Medicaid and Medicare. The money comes from the 2009 economic stimulus package. For Medicare, doctors must begin the transition by 2012 to receive the maximum benefit; those who provide services in an area with a shortage of health care professionals will qualify for additional payments. Medicare eligible professionals who do not demonstrate meaningful use by 2015 will be penalized starting at 1 percent of reimbursements and increasing each year to a maximum of 5 percent. MORE
Tax-Exempt Pedicures
By David Moltz | Inside Higher Ed | Jan. 5, 2011
With the ongoing college football postseason as a backdrop, a group of lawyers is yet again challenging the tax-exempt status of a major bowl game. Last week, the Playoff PAC, a group with relatively little interest in federal tax law but that advocates replacing college football’s Bowl Championship Series (BCS) with a tournament, filed a supplemental IRS complaint against the Orange Bowl Committee, alleging that it had used charitable funds to treat Orange Bowl executives and college athletics directors to a four-day “complimentary getaway” to the Bahamas. Since bowls are operated as 501(c)3 charities, they cannot operate for the benefit of private interests. The Playoff PAC, which uncovered the Orange Bowl trip through a series of public-records requests, argued that it was little more than a “junket” and could jeopardize the tax-exempt status of the bowl, which is one of the five games that constitute the BCS. MORE
