Welcome to the UW System Government Relations Newsletter. The UW System Office of Government Relations provides legislative and political updates that impact the University of Wisconsin System at the state and federal level.
Subscribe below to receive weekly e-mail notifications for state and federal legislative updates.
Subscribe to the Newsletter
State Relations
study committee on the future of the university of wisconsin system
The Study Committee on the future of the Universities of Wisconsin held its first meeting on July 11. The study committee is “directed to examine demographic trends affecting the University of Wisconsin System (UWS) and evaluate institutional infrastructure needs based on geographic access, workforce planning, and student demand for specific areas of study. The committee is also directed to review the administrative staff needs and governance structure of the UWS, including the Board of Regents. In response to its findings, the committee shall recommend legislation to modify current statutes to address the future plans for the UWS.”
Patricia Brady, former General Counsel of the Universities of Wisconsin and author of A History of the University of Wisconsin System was the only invited testimony for the hearing. The hearing also focused on organizational matters and a discussion of the committee assignment.
Committee members include: Representative Nedweski (Chair), Senator Tomczyk (Vice-Chair), Robert Atwell, Kurt Bauer, Scott Beightol, Shauna Froelich, William Hsu, Representative Joers, Peter Kies, Cecelia Klingele, James Langdon, Senator Larson, Jerome Lippert, Betsy Morgan, Jan Mueller, Ananth Seshadri, S. Mark Tyler, and Robert Venable.
View the Staff Brief for the Committee for more information.
Federal Relations
ways and means committee markup
Last week, the House Committee on Ways and Means marked up several bills of interest to institutions of higher education. These bills included:
H.R. 8914, the “University Accountability Act”
H.R. 8913, the “Protecting American Students Act”
H.R. 8914 passed the committee via a vote of 24-12, and H.R. 8913 passed the committee via a vote of 24-13. These bills, along with the others considered in committee, are now available for consideration in the full House of Representatives.
For more on the markup, including bill summaries, you can read the Ways and Means Committee Press Release.
committee on education and the workforce fafsa updates
Last week, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce marked up several bills including H.R. 8932, the FAFSA Deadline Act, which looks to mandate that the FAFSA be available on October 1st of each year. This bill advanced out of committee and can now be considered by the full House of Representatives. For more details, you can read the Education and Workforce Committee Press Release.
On July 11th, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), and Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, asked the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General to provide an update on their FAFSA investigation. You can read the letter to the Department of Education here and see more details on the Committee’s work in this space via the press release here.
action on h.j.res. 165
Last week, the House of Representatives voted on H.J. Res. 165, Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Education relating to “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance.” The bill passed via a vote of 210-205; if interested, you can see the full vote tally here.
house education and workforce action following supreme court decisions
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Education and Workforce Committee released letters from Chairwoman Foxx to the eight agencies that fall under committee jurisdiction.
As described in the linked release, in the letters Chairwoman Foxx says, in part: “[C]hevron unleashed decades of successively broader, more costly, and more invasive assertions of agency power over citizens’ lives, liberty, and property, as agencies adopted expansive interpretations of assertedly ambiguous statutes, demanding courts defer to them. Perhaps no administration has gone as far as President Biden’s to found sweeping and intrusive agency dictates on such questionable assertions of agency authority.”
To see the specific questions the Committee poses to the agencies you can access the letters in the linked press release. For the letter to Secretary Cardona, click here.
house and senate schedule
The House of Representatives and Senate are both in scheduled work periods this week. Both chambers are scheduled to return to Washington for votes the week of July 22nd.