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Back to 2007 updates archive | This week's schedule Legislative notes for the week of April 16-20, 2007The House has a billThe House passed its higher education bill Thursday evening after nearly four hours of debate. Eighteen amendments were offered to the bill. One that passed provided a tuition freeze in the second year of the biennium for students at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. The change was paid for by reducing the system's Office of the Chancellor budget. The original bill included a line item for $40.2 million annually for the system office. This amendment reduces that amount to $34.2 million each year. Another amendment sought to eliminate the DREAM Act provision, which gives in-state tuition rates to undocumented students if they attended a Minnesota high school for at least three years or graduated with a diploma. This amendment failed. The next step will be working out the differences between the House and Senate bill in a conference committee. Senate conferees are namedThe Senate agreed to conferee the higher education bills on Friday. It named Higher Education Chair Sen. Sandy Pappas (DFL-St. Paul), and Sens. Kathy Sheran (DFL-Mankato), Ron Latz (DFL-St. Louis Park), Claire Robling (R-Jordan) and Geoff Michel (R-Edina) to the committee. At the time of publication, House conferees were not named. Agriculture, veterans and military affairs bill passes the House; Senate conferees namedIn bipartisan support, the agriculture, veterans and military affairs omnibus finance bill passed the House 131-2 Tuesday evening. The bill, HF2227, authored by Rep. Al Juhnke, DFL-Willmar, was the first bill acted on this week by the House. The $175 million budget proposal is the culmination of work completed in the House Veterans Affairs Division, the House Agriculture, Rural Economies and Veterans Affairs Finance Division and its corresponding policy committee. The bill included a one-time appropriation of $450,000 for veterans' services offices on higher education campuses throughout the state. The Senate named conferees on Friday. This included Sens. Jim Vickerman (DFL-Tracy), Gary Kubly (DFL-Granite Falls), Sharon Erickson Ropes (DFL-Winona), Dan Skogen (DFL-Hewitt), and Steve Dille (R-Dassel). Confirmation receivedThe full Senate confirmed five of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees on Monday. Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, and higher education committee chair shared the background of the trustees that were approved in her committee. The full Senate voted to approve the trustees. They are Caleb Anderson, Michael Boulton, Christine Rice, C. Scott Thiss and James Van Houten. Federal UpdateCracking down on lendersCongressman George Miller, chairman of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, called for the Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to ensure student loan programs better serve students and their families. To accomplish this, he asked for the secretary to:
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