WASFAA Federal Relations CommitteeConference Call – June 16, 2016, 2:00 PT

Participants: Shellee Kilbride, Vicki Shipley, Leo Vogel and Tami Sato

Meeting started at 2:05 p.m.

Welcome, Introductions, Review of FRC Goals

  • We have a total of 8 FRC members so far including 2 new members. The members on the call introduced themselves. To Do: In the next quarterly report Tami will add the organization or institution of FRC members.
  • We reviewed the 4 Strategic Plan goals that fit wilth FRC activities. A directive that WASFAA President, Mike Johnson wanted FRC to attempt was helping WASFAA members to be advocates. Tami was provided a contact at Muster.com which facilitates members of an association to write letters to their representatives. FRC has looked into such companies in the past but the cost was prohibitive. WASFAA is in a financially healthier state but it would still take a great amount of effort to feed timely information into such a site. Vicki stated that a later time would be better to look into this as not much solid will be happening until after the November elections.
  • We try to provide timely federal issues information to members. Tami asked FRC members if they see something important to forward to her to post.
  • We also serve as communications link from states, to WASFAA and sometimes to NASFAA. When the NASFAA board meets they ask for questions. Justin left the WASFAA conference early because he was attending a meeting on GE reporting. He said there were disparate opinions on whether GE reporting should be eliminated or spread to all types of programs. I asked the RAL from WASFAA to ask about the results of this meeting.
  • We will talk about the NPRM we will want to submit a response to and we keep up and submit comments when it seems appropriate.

This and That

  • Pell Grant Surplus –It seemed like big news that the PG program would have a $7.8 b surplus next year and this would nicely cover the proposal to bring back year-round Pell and the $300 bonus recommended by the administration. The hope was that the surplus would not be used for other non-financial aid funding needs.
  • Payback Playbook - The CFPB is providing yet more redundant information on repayment plans for students. Borrowers need less, but better information and this may not be it. Vicki said NCHER submitted comments that were due June 12th.
  • FRC sent a listserv messageon the lower DL interest rates that would be in effect for loans first disbursed after 7/1/2016. A member responded asking if we knew the expected new DL fees. I thought that came out later but must be what it is based on that they became available also and so a listserv message was sent with the incrementally higher fees that will be effective for first disbursements after 10/1/2016.
  • Senate Spending Bill – Finally bipartisan agreement so bill is out of committee. Vicki says will probably still go to omnibus bill with lame duck session. The bill does restore year-round Pell but also sends $1.2 b from Pell to other programs like NIH. Pell will increase to $5,935. Leo wondered what the affect year-round Pell would have on LEU. Hopefully this version of year-round Pell will treat the summer Pell as a bonus and allow students to speed-up completion.

NPRM of Borrower Defenses

  • We have 45 days or until August 1st to submit a WASFAA comment to the NPRM. The original unofficial version was 530 pages(lawyers dream). Vicki recommended using the official, 3-column version which is 90 pages. FRC members who have time are asked to review the document, especially sections where comments are requested and responses made to non-federal negotiators. We should be able to review comments made by other organizations. To Do: Tami will try to develop a draft document. Other FRC members please send issues or paragraphs to Tami. Will want to provide positive comment also.
  • Special Master has been let go and a legal team will replace, an Enforcement Unit.
  • Arbitration is big issue. Triggers might affect everyone. For-profits will have to provide more data, tracking and disclosures.
  • Negotiators wanted a longer period for borrowers to submit a claim so the time period was extended from 2 to 6 years. Some wanted no time limit, the government has no time limit on how long they can try to collect on student loans.
  • Some of the NPRM brings additional questions, a need for clarity.
  • Partial forgiveness of loans conditions controversial.
  • Will have to be quick as approval by EC required before submitting and NASFAA Conference takes up big chunk of time. Maybe there will be some insight there.

Newsletter Article – Deadline July 1

  • As part of the NPRM, Tami felt that members needed to know more about what a repayment rate is, especially if it were applied to more segments and replaced the CDR as a measure of school eligibility. To Do: Not hearing any other volunteers, Tami will work on this article and submit it by the deadline date. Update: Tami wrote an article with input and additions from Shannon.

Summary

  • Other discussions – There didn’t seem to be more to say on PPY and the early FAFSA. Tami was surprised that if a student got married or divorced from the previous year that the spouse’s income would have to be added or subtracted from income numbers in the FAFSA.
  • At the WASFAA council meeting, Kim Wells, the DE liaison, provided a federal update.
  • Next meeting – We agreed that the 3rd Thursday of the month at 2:00 PT seemed to work for most. So next meeting would be 7/21. Tami will set this up but really could use some help with draft NPRM comment. Still working way through document.