Home AdvocacyPolicyWashington Notes2005 April

April, 2005 Contents

• Budget Battle Continues for Education Technology
• Senate Moves Forward on Bill to Exempt E-Rate from Federal Accounting Rules
• Legislation to Aid Teachers in Material Reproduction
• Heavily Attended Advocacy Day a Success

Budget Battle Continues for Education Technology

As expected, the FY06 Budget Resolution process has moved slowly over the past month, and the administration's proposed elimination of the Enhancing Education Through Technology program remains on the table. With large discrepancies in overall funding between the House and Senate passed versions of the FY06 budget, as well as some significant policy disagreements, it is not surprising that Congress has failed to complete work on a budget by its traditional target of April 15. In fact, the House has not yet appointed conferees to a House-Senate Budget Conference, and the Senate only appointed conferees on April 4. The Senate's representatives to a House-Senate Budget Resolution Conference include: Budget Chairman Judd Gregg (R-NH), Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM), Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO), Budget Ranking Member Kent Conrad (D-ND), Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). Although a budget resolution is not necessary to continue with the appropriations process, which is currently underway, the lack of a joint resolution may signal a very tough appropriations year that could drag on far past the October 1, 2005 due date.

The differences between the House and Senate versions may well lead to Congress failing to reach agreement on a budget for FY06. The House-passed version generally tracks the President's budget numbers and establishes discretionary funding caps of $843 billion. The Senate's version includes substantially higher final budget figures, including an additional $5.4 billion in discretionary spending for education programs. Additionally, the Senate opted to restore $14 billion to the Medicaid program, while the House voted to cut the program according to the numbers indicated in the President's budget request. House Budget Chairman Jim Nussle (R-IA) has indicated that differences in the House and Senate regarding the Medicaid restoration will be the most significant point of contention during the conference. The Senate traveled a circuitous path to increase funding for education in the FY06 Budget. Its initial foray into increasing education funds, an effort by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) to directly add $4.8 billion to the budget for K-12 spending, which included increases for education technology, failed on a 44-49 vote. Subsequent to that failed effort, the Senate approved an amendment by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), on a narrow 51-49 vote, to add $5.4 billion to the FY06 Budget to restore funding for several specific higher education programs- including TRIO, GEAR UP, LEAP, Perkins loans, graduate education, and others. The Senate also agreed to Senator Arlen Specter's (R-PA) proposal to add $500 million for education and healthcare, though the funds would be split between these separate budget function accounts.

Despite these additional funds, it remains unclear whether education or education technology will see funding increases in the budget. First, the Senate's restorative amendments, including the increases to higher education, may well be stricken during the House-Senate Conference to reconcile both versions of the budget resolution. Second, even if the Senate amendments are retained in the final joint budget resolution, it is not clear that the money will actually go to the programs for which the money was intended. This is due to the nature of the budget process, which allocates funding to "function accounts" instead of to individual issue areas. Finally, because the budget resolution is not binding, it is up to the appropriations committees to determine the actual amount of funding that education programs will receive.

Although the budget remains in stalemate, there have been several promising signs that House and Senate appropriators may reject, at least in part, the President's cuts to education and restore some of the funding to education technology. At a hearing last month in the House Subcommittee on Labor, HHS and Education, several Republicans and Democrats spoke out in favor of education technology programs and stated that the President's cuts were overly drastic. Additionally, during Senate floor debate on the Budget Resolution, three Democratic senators made favorable comments about education technology. In terms of general discretionary education spending, on April 12, five Senate Republicans, including Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) and Mike DeWine (R-RI), wrote to the House and Senate budget committees advising that the $5.4 billion increase in discretionary spending for education proposed by the passed Kennedy Amendment remain in the budget resolution. They wrote, "We believe that the $5.4 billion increase is essential to our efforts to ensure quality of access to higher education for all students and the opportunity to participate fully in the American Dream." There are currently no appropriations hearings scheduled in either the House or the Senate on education, but these hearings will likely be added to the schedule in the coming weeks.

top

Senate Moves Forward on Bill to Exempt E-Rate from Federal Accounting Rules

At a full Senate Commerce Committee hearing earlier this month, Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK) stated that exempting Universal Service, including the E-Rate program, from the Anti Deficiency Act (ADA) would be one of the "major issues before the committee this year." At issue in the hearing was S. 241, a bill sponsored by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) and cosponsored by 32 senators-including Chairman Stevens and Ranking Member Daniel Inouye (D-HI)-that would permanently exempt all of universal service from provisions in the ADA that had essentially halted the flow of E-Rate support last year. The ADA provision states that no funds can be obligated without sufficient cash on hand. When the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), the program's administrator, determined that the E-Rate's Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) constituted "obligations" under the Act, it stopped sending such letters to applicants for three months last year because it did not have sufficient cash on-hand to cover the commitments. Though a last-minute temporary exemption of universal service from the ADA was secured last December, this exemption expires at the end of this year.

The hearing was widely attended and senators on both sides of the aisle expressed support for the bill and the need to pass legislation soon if the E-Rate program is to continue to provide uninterrupted support to schools and libraries beyond this year. The committee heard testimony from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC); USAC; the General Accounting Office (GAO), which recently released a report on the E-Rate; and a rural provider to schools and libraries from Alaska.

Additionally, Sheryl Abshire testified on behalf of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), stating the positive impact that the E-Rate has had in her district and the devastating effect that another shutdown would have on schools and libraries in her district and around the country. Abshire stated, "The Universal Service Administrative Company shutdown of the program for three months last year was a major catastrophe for our district. Overall, it set back our infrastructure upgrade anywhere from six months to a year…Without the passage of a permanent exemption to the ADA, we fear another shutdown for the E-Rate at the end of this year and even longer delays in building-out our network and providing the learning opportunities that are essential for today's students."

The sole dissenting voice heard at the hearing was that of Senator John Sununu (R-NH), who questioned why his colleagues believed that the E-Rate program was worthy of exemption. He further stated that, because the E-Rate is a large program with a $2.25 billion annual cap, it should be subject to a higher level of oversight from the federal government and suggested that this ADA issue represented an opportunity to force action on the larger problem of how to fix the universal service fund. The FCC and USAC responded that the exemption from the ADA is separate from ongoing efforts in the House and Senate on a larger-scale universal service reform and that timing on the accounting issue is critical. Specifically, Chairman Stevens stated that legislative action was needed in the committee immediately because regulatory action or other measures would take unnecessarily long and that rural providers would likely go out of business before the fix could be made. Ms. Abshire further stated that timing was "critical in terms of educational opportunities," such as securing infrastructure upgrades, planning new distance learning courses, and providing ongoing professional development support to teachers, especially those in rural areas.

The outlook in the House has grown bleaker-a companion bill has yet to be introduced in the House and House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) said about the E-Rate earlier this month at a Federal Communications Bar Association event, "If I had to vote today, I'd vote to abolish it. If I can't kill it, I'm going to do everything I can to so underfund it that it goes away." He also proposed that if the program continues, it should be scaled back to only provide connections, but no ongoing services, to low-income districts. Finally, Chairman Barton indicated that the House should consider restructuring the program, morphing it into an appropriations program that would require congressional appropriations each year. If this occurs, the program funding level will likely decrease due to competing congressional priorities. It remains to be determined whether Chairman Barton has enough support on the committee to bring about such a drastic change to the program.

Meanwhile, demand for the program remains strong. In mid-April, USAC released its demand estimate for Program Year 2006 support that showed applicants seeking more than $3.6 billion in E-Rate discounts. This figure represents a significant reduction in demand over last year, when USAC estimated demand at $4.2 billion, with nearly all of the demand decreases coming in the area of internal connections requests from high-discount applicants. USAC speculated on the reasons for the reductions in a letter to the FCC: "The reductions may mean that (high-discount entities') needs have been largely met for now and school districts or library systems are now requesting internal connections discounts for lower-discount entities." USAC also suggested that the implementation of the "twice-every-five-years rule," which limits entities from receiving discounts for internal connections other than basic maintenance more than twice every five funding years, might also be causing this downturn in internal connections requests." Another possible explanation is the uncertainty generated by last year's ADA funding commitment delays.

top

Legislation to Aid Teachers in Material Reproduction

Last month, Rick Boucher (D-VA), Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) and Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) introduced H.R. 1201, The Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act, which would relax rules adopted in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and restore a greater measure of fair use to consumers and educators. Under the DMCA, educators are currently prohibited from using technology to circumvent encryption to reach copyrighted digital works, even for fair use purposes. As a result, teachers have not been able to access protected information for instructional purposes. HR 1201 would enable educators to access fair use portions of protected copyrighted materials for instructional purposes. During the 108th Congress, Reps. Boucher and Doolittle introduced this same bill but were unsuccessful in passing it. This year the bill appears to be gathering more momentum, with Chairman of the Commerce Committee Joe Barton joining as one of the lead sponsors to the bill. Other cosponsors include Mark Kennedy (R-MN), Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA) and Jeff Miller (R-FL).

top

Heavily Attended Advocacy Day a Success

On March 21, 2005 ISTE and CoSN held their annual Advocacy Day for education technology in Washington, DC. More than 150 education technology advocates from 35 states participated in the all day event, marking a huge increase in the number of participants from previous years. Advocacy Day attendees included state and district school administrators, superintendents, educators, and members of the education technology industry. Each attended a morning session highlighted by a "Policy Boot Camp" and a Congressional panel, and then took to Capitol Hill for meetings with staff in his or her respective representative's and Senators' offices. The main issues discussed on and off the Hill were the proposed elimination of funding for the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program and the sustainability of the E-Rate program.

Participant feedback was extremely positive and the day was considered a great success. For more information about the Advocay Day and the issues discussed, visit the Education Technology Action Network Web site at http://www.EdTechActionNetwork.org/.

top