Government Relations

Legislative Update

April 25, 2008

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In this issue:

STATE UPDATE

In The News

►April 10 - President Reilly announces UW System effort to fund need-based aid. The plan aims to double the UW System’s current levels of privately funded, need-based financial aid. Read coverage in both the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Wisconsin State Journal.

► April 14 - State legislators invited to shape future editions of UW System’s Accountability Report.  President Reilly asked higher-education committee chairpersons, Rep. Steve Nass and Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, for a public hearing and/or dialogue about the current report and its effectiveness, and to seek legislator input as to how we might refine our efforts to track, analyze, and report on accountability measures.

► April 15 - Governor Doyle directed state agencies to improve personal information security. The Governor called for a Personal Security Officer in each agency to implement the recommendations put forth by the Metavante Corporation, including discontinuing the use of Social Security Numbers. The report also recommends establishing a global privacy education program for all state employees. Read the Associated Press story.

►April 23 - UW-Green Bay Chancellor Shepard announces resignation.  Bruce Shepard announced he will step down at the end of June, to take a position at Western Washington University. Read the Read the UW System press release.

State Legislation Update

State Budget Repair Bill

WisPolitics reported yesterday that the budget repair bill could be taken up next week in conjunction with the Great Lakes Compact during a special legislative floor session, aides to legislative leaders said. Talks reportedly continued this week as Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, and Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, and top aides met yesterday to negotiate an agreement to fill the state's $525 million budget deficit. The leaders are also expected to talk today as they try to find a combination of budget-cutting initiatives that agreeable to the Senate, Assembly and Gov. Jim Doyle.

FEDERAL UPDATE

►House Approves Legislation to Ensure Access to Student Loans
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bipartisan bill, H.R. 5715, aimed at ensuring student loans remain available, despite the shaky credit market.  The bill would:

  • increase the annual loan limits on federal loans by $2,000 for all students and increase the aggregate loan limits to $31,000 for dependent undergraduates and $57,500 for independent undergraduates;
  • give parents more time to begin paying off their federal PLUS loans by providing them with the option to defer repayment up to six months after their children leave school;
  • make sure that short-term delinquencies in mortgage payments and medical bills do not prohibit otherwise eligible parents from being able to borrow PLUS loans, by temporarily classifying as "extenuating circumstances" delinquencies on home mortgages and medical bills of up to 180 days;
  • affirm that existing law gives the Secretary of Education the authority to advance federal funds to guaranty agencies, in the event that they do not have sufficient capital to originate new loans, and allow guaranty agencies to implement the functions of "lender of last resort" on a school-wide basis; and
  • grant the Secretary the temporary authority to purchase loans from lenders in the federal guaranteed loan program, to make sure lenders continue to have access to capital to originate new loans -- albeit only if doing so would not result in a net cost for the federal government.

Read more information on the House bill.  The Senate has not yet taken up its version of the bill.  In a recent Statement of Administration Policy, the White House supports most provisions of the House bill.

► Report Urges Creation of National Innovation Foundation
Two Washington, D.C.-based think tanks have issued a report that urges the federal government to create a National Innovation Foundation (NIF) with the sole mission of promoting innovation.   The new foundation, which could be an independent agency like the National Science Foundation or a “government-related public corporation within the National Institute of Standards and Technology,” would consolidate innovation policy efforts scattered throughout the government and bridge the gap between basic research and the introduction of new products and processes. The agency would use a variety of competitive grant programs to promote industry-university research consortia, regional industry clusters, and other collaborations at the national, state, and regional levels. 

The report, “Boosting Productivity, Innovation, and Growth through a National Innovation Foundation,” was released publicly on April 22 by the Metropolitan Policy Program within the Brookings Institute and the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, with the endorsement of the Council on Competitiveness. 

► Kind Introduces Bill Creating Bipartisan Commission to Reform Earmarking, Restore Public Trust in the Process
On April 15, U.S. Rep. Ron Kind announced the introduction of a bill establishing an independent, bipartisan commission to recommend reforms to the earmarking process, the Bipartisan Earmark Reform Commission Act of 2008 (H.R. 5755), stating, “Abuse of the earmarking system has eroded the public’s trust in the process and overshadowed the worthy projects earmarks often fund.”

►Latest Edition of WiSys Newsletter Focuses on Collaboration
View the Winter-Spring 2008 issue of the newsletter.

 

AROUND WISCONSIN

This is the first Legislative Update including “Around Wisconsin,” a section for items relating to exciting progress on campus or examples of strong relations with the community and policy makers. Please send items for consideration to externalrelations@uwsa.edu.

  • UW System: State Rep. Mark Pocan was the keynote speaker at the Third Annual UW System LGBTQ Spring Conference, held April 4-5 at UW-Green Bay. The event was attended by over 150 faculty, staff, and students.
  • UW-Oshkosh: Secretary Michael Morgan of the State Department of Administration presented the Wisconsin Covenant to 100 middle school students at UW-Oshkosh on April 17. Along with Sec. Morgan’s presentation, the students had the opportunity to attend a full morning of events and tour the campus to get a taste of college life. 
  • UW-Platteville: The Confucius Institute, a partnership between higher education institutions and the Chinese Ministry of Education, opened with a grand ceremony on April 11. One of only 40 in the U.S., the Institute will provide cultural and language classes to the community and student population.

►On the Calendar

  • April 29-30 – Racine:  Wingspread Conference Liberal Education and Wisconsin's Promise: Building Leadership, Advocacy, and Support for What Really Matters in College co-sponsored by Office of the Lieutenant Governor, UW System and The Johnson Foundation.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

April  
25 UW-River Falls hosts 9th Annual UW System Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity
May  
21 Legislative Liaisons/Public Information Officers face to face meeting at UW-La Crosse
30 Grant-writing workshop for UW System researchers at UW-Eau Claire
June  
5 Medical Device Collaborative Gathering, Marshfield Clinic.  Organized by Marshfield Clinic, Wisconsin Entrepreneurs' Network and WiSys Technology Foundation and co-sponsored by the UW System Office of Federal Relations and Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek, S.C.,
July  
17-18 Wisconsin Science & Technology Symposium, UW-Stout

 

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