Capital Update tracks the movement of legislation, the introduction of notable bills, and routine regulatory announcements.
Legislative Action
Job Training Partnership Act
HR 3033
A House-Senate conference committee last week began marking up a compromise bill amending the jobs program.
Child Welfare
HR 5600, HR 11
The House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee have approved measures aimed at investing in preventive family-support services.
Education of the Deaf Act
HR 5483
The House Education and Labor Committee in June approved a measure reauthorizing funding for Gallaudet University, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, and programs to encourage deaf students and minority-group members to become special educators.
FY 1993 Education Budget
The House last month approved a bill that would provide $29 billion for the Education Department in fiscal 1993.
Higher Education Act
P.L. 102-325
President Bush has signed legislation reauthorizing the Higher Education Act. It had passed the House by a vote of 419 to 7 and the Senate by a voice vote.
Juvenile Justice
S 2792
The Senate Judiciary Committee last week approved legislation to reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.
Comprehensive Services
S 3088
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, last week introduced “the comprehensive services for youth act of 1992,’' which would provide health and social services to children in school.
Head Start
HR 5630
The House Education and Labor Committee last week approved legislation that would allow Head Start funds to be used to purchase or renovate facilities, make it easier to win a waiver of fund-matching requirements, mandate safety standards for vehicles that carry Head Start students, and increase parental-involvement mandates.
Even Start
States are having difficulty adjusting to state administration of the Even Start family-literacy program, Education Department officials told the House Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary, and Vocational Education last week at an oversight hearing on Even Start.
School Lunch
S Res 303
The Senate last month approved by voice vote a nonbinding resolution urging the Secretary of Agriculture to study the feasibility of altering the school-lunch and -breakfast programs to avoid stigmatizing students who receive subsidies, either by advance collection of fees or expanded eligibility for free meals.
Enterprise Zones
HR 11
The full House and the Senate Finance Committee last month approved legislation that would offer tax breaks to businesses investing in distressed urban and rural areas, and also provide special federal aid to the “enterprise zones’’ focused on education and job training.
Urban Aid
HR 5132
President Bush last month signed an emergency urban-relief bill after lawmakers agreed to drop $500 million for summer education programs and trim $175 million from the $675 million they had proposed for summer youth jobs.
Corporal Punishment
HR 1522
The House Subcommittee on Select Education held a hearing in late June on legislation to bar federal funds from schools that practice corporal punishment.
Educational Telecommunications
The Senate Commerce Committee held a informational hearing last month on the ways in which various technologies, including broadcast and cable-television, fiber-optics, and satellites, are employed to facilitate distance-learning,
Education Department
Campus Crime Reports
Proposed Rules
The Education Department published proposed rules in the July 10 Federal Register that would require higher-education institutions to publish graduation rates for all students and separate rates for athletes by July 1, 1993, and to publish campus crime statistics by Sept. 1, 1992. Comments are due Aug. 24.
Early Intervention
Proposed funding priority
To counter a shortage of personnel to work with disabled infants and toddlers, the Education Department has proposed making recruiting and training such workers a funding priority. The notice appeared in the June 25 Federal Register.
EDGAR Revisions
Final Rules
The Education Department has published amendments to the Education Department General Administrative Regulations, which govern the management of most education grants and contracts. Most changes remove duplicative or outdated provisions, but a new provision would require grantees to show progress toward stated objectives to receive continuation funding. The notice appeared in the July 8 Federal Register; the proposed rules were published in 1988.
Disaster Aid
Proposed Rules
The Federal Emergency Management Agency would coordinate aid to schools hit by natural disasters under proposed rules published in the July 7 Federal Register. The rules aim to remove confusion caused by overlapping jurisdiction of FEMA programs and a school-disaster-aid program run by the Education Department. Comments are due Sept. 8.
Even Start
Final Rules
The Education Department has published final rules implementing statutory changes in the Even Start program. The notice appeared in the June 19 Federal Register.
