Campus leaders tuned in to a Dec. 4 live-streamed conversation between ACE government relations experts on up-to-the-minute developments in federal policy affecting higher education.
ACE Senior Vice President Terry Hartle and Director of Government Relations Jon Fansmith opened with their predictions on what would get accomplished in the few remaining legislative days of 2019, including prospects of passing final Fiscal Year 2020 spending bills and implications for campuses if current funding levels are extended instead.
The conversation, the first in a monthly series of Public Policy Pop-Ups, was hosted on ACE Engage®, ACE's peer-to-peer online community and learning platform. A recording of the inaugural Public Policy Pop-Up is
now available in the Engage library. Higher education executives can create a complimentary Engage account here.
Hartle and Fansmith also touched on recent progress, or lack thereof, on reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, which they will discuss in greater detail during a
public webinar Tuesday, Dec. 10. The webinar will be followed by an exclusive question and answer session the next day, Dec. 11, for ACE Engage users.
Lastly, they sketched out potential timelines for two regulatory developments under the Department of Education (ED): a new system for reporting foreign gifts and contracts under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, and the pending final rule on Title IX campus sexual assault. Fansmith warned of the possibility that a proposed Section 117 information collection might be issued before the Jan. 31 reporting deadline, which could cause “massive chaos" for institutions as they scramble to comply with greatly expanded requirements. On Title IX, Hartle posited a final rule by mid-February at the earliest and that the regulation may be challenged in the courts.
ACE will host “just in time" webinars within a few days for each of these two topics after each is released by ED.
Click here to learn more and sign up to be notified when they are scheduled. These webinars will be open to the public, but their recordings will be archived exclusively on ACE Engage.
As Congress returns after the holidays don't miss the January edition of the Public Policy Pop-Up. Keep an eye on the “Events" tab of the ACE Engage platform for details.