In the first months of the 110th Congress, the new Democratic
majority has education high on its agenda.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, along with
other members of Congress, released a schedule for the first 100
hours of Congress, which includes a goal of cutting student loan
interest rates in half, according to Pelosi’s official Web
site.
Anthony Portantino, chair of the California Assembly Higher
Education Committee, said he has been working on a list of goals
for higher education that he hopes to achieve with the new
Democratic Congress.
“We are still formulating our overall agenda,”
Portantino said. “Obviously access and affordability continue
to be important issues I see on the horizon.”
Over the course of the next few months, Portantino hopes to pass
legislation to reform Pell Grant statutes. This could ensure
eligibility for students who are dependant on the Pell Grant and
make the Pell Grant available for 12 months rather than nine for
students who attend school year-round.
Portantino said he sent a letter to Pelosi and George Miller,
chairman of the House of Education and the Workforce Committee,
addressing these concerns.
Portantino said he is optimistic about the future of higher
education legislation in California.
“Education is on everyone’s mind,” Portantino
said. “Education is the key to a successful future and I
think our friends in Washington are good people who agree with
that.”
The Democratic Party’s six-point plan for 2006, nicknamed
“Six of ’06,” will continue to be followed in
2007. The first point on the plan was to establish honest
leadership and an open government. On the first day of the new
Congress, they passed lobbying and ethics reforms to prevent
unethical lobbying tactics.
On Wednesday, therefore, Democrats plan to pass legislation to
raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour. Miller, who is
introducing the legislation, said in a press release that it has
been nearly a decade since the last minimum wage increase and that
it is long overdue.
Other topics on the new Congress’s agenda are to expand
stem cell research, allow negotiation for lower prescription drug
costs and to end subsidies for big oil companies and invest in
renewable energy.
The new Democratic Congress also plans on reevaluating the US
involvement in Iraq. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, along with
Pelosi, sent a letter to President Bush requesting he not send more
troops to Iraq.
“Surging forces is a strategy that you (President Bush)
have already and that has already failed,” they wrote in the
letter, which was sent Friday.
“Like many current and former military leaders, we believe
that trying again would be a serious mistake. … Adding more
combat troops will only endanger more Americans and stretch our
military to the breaking point for no strategic gain.”
This is the first time in 12 years the Democrats have been in
control of Congress. With a Republican administration, some,
including political science professor Scott Curtis James, believe
there will be conflict.
“I expect a certain degree of conflict between the
Congress and the president,” James said. “Especially
because it’s a year leading into the election year …
I’d also expect less cooperation between the
branches.”
However, Bush has made an effort to reach out to the Democrats.
White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore told the Los Angeles Times
that Bush has held at least 10 meetings with members of Congress,
most of whom were Democrats.
Bush called for an effort to find “common ground” in
a statement released Wednesday, and Democrats such as Senator
Charles Schumer, D-New York, said that they were hopeful that
Bush’s talk of compromise will be upheld, according to the
Los Angeles Times.