FederalDaily - July 13, 2007
House Passes Largest College-Loan Effort since GI Bill
The House on July 11 passed a massive overhaul of the federal student loan effort designed to make
college more affordable for students, families and those serving in public service. It is the biggest
such effort since the 1944 GI bill, said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif, chairman of the Education and
Labor Committee and author of the legislation, the College Cost Reduction Act (H.R. 2669. The bill
was approved by an overwhelming 273 to 149 margin—and a similar measure is expected to be on
the Senate floor later this month. The bill would increase the maximum Pell Grant, cut interest rates
in half on need-based student loans and offer loan forgiveness to a broad category of public servants.
Public servants would receive loan forgiveness of $5,000—providing aid to at least 257,000 first
responders, law enforcement officers, public defenders, prosecutors, early childhood educators and
others. The bill also provides complete loan forgiveness for public sector employees after 10 years
of service. “This bill is a remarkable step forward in our efforts to help every qualified student
go to college,” Miller said in a statement. To see more, go to: http://edworkforce.house.gov/micro/ccra.shtml
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Earmarks Database Upgraded
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on July 10 announced upgrades to its congressional earmarks
database, including real time tracking of such dedicated funding as it moves through the FY 2008 appropriations
process. The database will show the number of earmarks, their dollar value, and the bills to which
they are attached as they move the legislative process, OMB Director Rob Portman said in a statement.
The database also now will show earmarks—called by some critics “pork-barrel funding”—for
selected authorization bills that resulted in expenditures in FY 2005, Portman said. This will include
authorization bills, where some earmarks are included, Portman said. Launched on March 12, the database
provides information on earmark funding, including the 13,492 earmarks totaling $18.9 billion that
were attached to bills in FY 2005. "American taxpayers deserve to know how and where government
spends their money," said Portman. To see more, go to: www.earmarks.omb.gov.
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Vets Tell Their Stories of Violence In Iraq
In an frank series of vignettes, fifty combat veterans of the Iraq war recount their experiences
for The Nation magazine, describing a clear-eyed, brutal side of the conflict rarely
seen on television screens or chronicled in newspaper accounts. Their stories are all the more vivid
and remarkable because the combat veterans—some of whom bear deep emotional and physical scars—allowed
their names to be used in the magazine article. Work on the series was launched after a growing chorus
of human rights groups issued reports indicating that the occupation has visited more harm on Iraqi
civilians than previously reported. Dozens of those veterans interviewed by magazine said they witnessed
Iraqi civilians, including children, dying from American firepower. Such acts are common, many of the
interviewed vets said, though they usually go unreported and unpunished. “I mean, you physically
could not do an investigation every time a civilian was wounded or killed because it just happens a
lot and you'd spend all your time doing that," Marine Reserve Lt. Jonathan Morgenstein, 35, of
Arlington, Va., told the magazine. To see more, go to: www.thenation.com/doc/20070730/hedges.
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