McMahon issues higher education ‘National Call to Action’ Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Monday sent a “National Call to Action” to all college and university presidents, asking them to respond to a series of questions that the communication identifies as central to declining “public esteem” in higher education. As covered in Community College Daily, the […]
Washington Watch Weekly, July 31, 2026
Senate HELP committee approves higher education bills The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee marked up and approved a slate of 10 bills and nominations on Thursday, including several bills of interest to community colleges. With time running short in the current Congress, the future for all these bills is murky at best. For […]
Washington Watch Weekly, July 24, 2026
ED Guidance: Colleges responsible for aid disbursed to fraudulent students In a July 17 Electronic Announcement that answers questions related to its new real-time FAFSA fraud detection initiative, the Education Department (ED) stated that colleges must return all Title IV funds distributed to students that are later found to be fraudulent. This requirement applies even […]
Washington Watch Weekly, July 17, 2026
House Republicans advance bill package to formally dismantle ED Republicans on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce introduced last week a set of 10 bills – called the “Less Bureaucracy, Better Education” package – designed to dismantle the Department of Education (ED). On Wednesday, the Committee approved the package on a partisan basis. […]
Washington Watch Weekly, July 10, 2026
New regulations coming from ED The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released this week the updated Unified Agenda for the Department of Education (ED). The 19-item agenda details the agency’s regulatory priorities and provides a prospective timeline for action on each issue. It includes many topics highlighted by President Donald Trump through executive orders […]
Washington Watch Weekly, July 3, 2026
Final accountability rules released The Department of Education (ED) on Wednesday published the final regulations establishing a new accountability and transparency regime based on program completers’ earnings. As covered in Community College Daily, the regulations are the last set of final rules issued to implement the numerous higher education components of last year’s One Big […]
Washington Watch Weekly, June 26, 2026
House marks up campus culture bills The House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Thursday held a markup of 11 bills dealing with issues related to higher education, labor and healthcare policy. Five of the bills addressed campus culture issues directly. Most of the higher education bills were approved by the committee on party-line […]
Washington Watch Weekly, June 19, 2026
Trump administration moves civil rights enforcement to DOJ The Trump administration announced this week that it will move some responsibilities of the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Under the new Interagency Agreement (IAA), ED will retain statutory authority over civil rights enforcement of educational institutions, but […]
Washington Watch Weekly, June 12, 2026
House Appropriations Committee approves Labor-HHS-ED funding bill The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved the fiscal year 2027 (FY 27) funding bill for the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee (Labor-HHS-ED) following a lengthy markup. As covered in the Community College Daily, the bill seeks to cut discretionary funding by 27% […]
Washington Watch Weekly, June 5, 2026
House appropriators maintain support for key programs, Pell Grant shortfall still looms The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday released the fiscal year 2027 (FY 27) funding bill for the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee (Labor-HHS-ED). The Labor-HHS-ED subcommittee approved the bill on June 5. The bill ultimately seeks to cut […]