A Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate spells some good news for the higher-education agenda of President-elect Joseph R. Biden as well as more emergency money for colleges to offset the financial losses of the pandemic.
But a closely divided Congress will make it hard for the majority party to pass any major legislation, like a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, or push through enough money for widespread student-loan forgiveness or a federal free-college program.
Two Democratic candidates for the Senate have won their runoff elections in Georgia this week, which would mean both parties will hold 50 seats. Control of that chamber, however, will go to the Democrats because of the tie-breaking vote of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, also a Democrat. The party also has a narrow majority of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“If the Democrats take control of the Senate, it will change everything, but it will guarantee nothing,” said Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president of government relations at the American Council on Education.
One clear advantage of having a Democratic majority in the Senate, Hartle said, is that they should be able to confirm all of Biden’s cabinet choices and other positions that require the chamber’s approval. The president-elect is nominating Miguel A. Cardona, currently Connecticut’s commissioner of education, to be the U.S. secretary of education.
Senate Democrats will also name the leadership of the chamber’s committees and set the legislative agenda choosing what bills will advance to the floor for a vote. That means Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, will be the likely leader of the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Murray is considered a staunch ally of higher education and more welcome than the likely Republicans who would have held that post if the GOP retained control of the chamber.
“Community-college leaders eagerly anticipate Senator Murray as incoming HELP Committee chair, as she thoroughly understands our students’ needs and has been a stalwart supporter of the institutions,” David S. Baime, senior vice president for government relations and policy analysis for the American Association of Community Colleges, said in an email.
Higher-education organizations have a long wish list for Congress, including more stimulus money to offset the economic damage of the pandemic, doubling the amount of the Pell Grant, a program to provide some sort of tuition- or debt-free college, and passage of the Dream Act to protect the residency of undocumented minors.
But higher-education leaders shouldn’t expect a wide raft of higher-education legislation to breeze through the chamber, said Rebecca S. Natow, an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy at Hofstra University. The filibuster, which allows senators to indefinitely delay a final vote on a bill, is still in place in the Senate, Natow said, and Democrats are unlikely to get the 60 votes needed to limit debate on most bills.
In many cases it will be difficult to unify all 50 Democrats on a single piece of legislation, she said, such as a full reauthorization of the Higher Education Act that deals with complex issues like Title IX enforcement.
Tamara Hiler, director of education at Third Way, said there are some ways that Congress can enact higher-education policy through other bills, including another stimulus package and the budget process. “There will be some sort of conversation about reauthorization [of the Higher Education Act], but the fact that reconciliation is back on the table means we could see smaller pieces of legislation get through,” she said.
The stimulus bill that passed in December, for example, included significant changes to the student financial-aid programs along with nearly $23 billion for colleges and students.
A special kind of legislation, called budget reconciliation, is not subject to the filibuster and could also be used to push through some policy changes that would have trouble gaining 60 votes in the Senate, Hiler said.
Julie Peller, executive director of Higher Learning Advocates, a bipartisan group that advocates for policies to improve student success, said that reconciliation is a possibility for some policy and spending changes, but the rules around that legislation also have strict limits. No new programs can be created, so that would probably rule out spending for a free-college program, she said.
And Democrats will have to deal with rules that require spending increases to be offset by cuts in other areas, she said. “So a broad package that includes student-loan forgiveness, for example, may be difficult to achieve through reconciliation,” Peller said, “unless those rules are sidestepped or spending cuts are found and agreed to.”
Hartle, of the American Council on Education, also expects Democrats to use reconciliation for the next economic-stimulus package. But even without the possibility of filibuster, the process will be laden with big expectations and difficult negotiations to keep all the Democrats unified.
“Budget reconciliation could be used if they can agree what they want to put in it,” Hartle said, “but there will be a pressure to put everything they want into a single bill.”
