House-Passed Bill Would Let Displaced Students Keep Pell Grants; Debate Looms Over Other Relief Measures

By KELLY FIELD

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House-passed bill would let displaced students keep Pell Grants; debate looms over other relief measures

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Students displaced by Hurricane Katrina would be able to keep the Pell Grants they received through their home institutions, under legislation passed on Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bill (HR 3169), which was sliced from a much larger piece of legislation to extend the Higher Education Act (HR 609), would allow the secretary of education to waive a requirement that students who withdraw from college must return their Pell Grants to the federal government. Thousands of students attending colleges and universities in the Gulf Coast region have been forced to withdraw or to transfer to other institutions in the wake of the devastating hurricane.

"Our neediest students shouldn't be punished after enduring a natural disaster," said Rep. Ric Keller, a Republican from Florida, in a statement on the House floor. Mr. Keller introduced the bill last year, after students displaced by four hurricanes in his home state were forced to repay the Pell Grant funds they had used to cover expenses beyond tuition and fees.

Democrats praised the bill on Wednesday, but said that Congress must do more to provide relief to the estimated 100,000 students affected by the cyclone.

After the unanimous vote, Rep. George Miller of California, the top Democrat on the House education committee, introduced a bill that would allow borrowers to defer payments on their student loans for up to six months without being charged interest or incurring penalties.

Under current law, borrowers affected by a natural disaster can apply for a three-month forbearance on their loans, but interest on their loans would continue to accrue. Mr. Miller's bill also would direct the Education Department to recalculate the amount that families who have lost homes and businesses in the hurricane can be expected to contribute toward their children's college education. Such a change could qualify families on the Gulf Coast for additional federal financial aid.

Members of the Senate education committee have yet to offer hurricane-relief legislation, but the panel is scheduled to meet today with education, health, and labor leaders for a roundtable discussion. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the committee, has said he will introduce a bill that would provide displaced students with a six-month deferment on their student loans and would waive the matching requirement in the campus-based aid programs for colleges that accept the students as transfers.

"Colleges are volunteering to admit displaced students from the region," Mr. Kennedy said. "We must offer them additional aid for generously admitting those students."

The committee's chairman, Sen. Michael B. Enzi, a Republican from Wyoming, has not settled on the specifics of a relief bill, according to Craig Orfield, the senator's press secretary. However, "there is no question," Mr. Orfield said, "that there is going to be aid for students affected."

Some higher-education lobbyists hope Congress will provide additional money for campus-based aid programs as part of a second "emergency supplemental" spending bill that lawmakers are expected to pass in the coming weeks.

The vote in the House on Wednesday came just a few hours after higher-education lobbyists met with the education secretary, Margaret Spellings, to request additional changes to federal student-aid policy that would benefit colleges and students affected by the hurricane. The advocates said the secretary appeared attuned to colleges' concerns, but did not make any promises.

In part, that's because both the advocates and the Bush administration are still trying to figure out how best to respond to the disaster, said Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education. He proposed that the administration be given the authority to make regulatory tweaks as necessary, much as it was after the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

"The Department of Education wants to do the right thing," he said, "but at the present time neither they nor we can predict what all the issues will be."

Meanwhile, lobbyists for private colleges are asking Congress to restore their eligibility for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Under a change made in 2000, private nonprofit groups can receive funds from the agency for emergency response and cleanup, but they must apply to the Small Business Administration for loans to cover the repair and replacement of permanent structures. Public colleges face no such restrictions, and private colleges fear that the small-business funds will not meet their needs.