TO: COHEAO Members
FR: Harrison Wadsworth, Executive Director
Andrew Stringer, Washington DC Staff

Earlier today the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education marked up their FY2006 appropriations bill. Reportedly, the Subcommittee funded Perkins Loan Cancellations at $66.7 million, even with FY2005, but did not include funding for the Federal Capital Contribution (FCC). It was disappointing, but not unexpected, that the FCC was not funded – like FY 2005 – but we view the cancellation funding as a positive sign for two reasons:

1. It was very possible that Loan Cancellations would not receive any funding at a time of extremely tight budgets and given the call for elimination of the program by the President and the Department of Education leadership.
2. It is shows support for the Perkins Loan Program, indicating that the House appropriators are not prepared to eliminate the program.

COHEAO would like to thank everyone who wrote letters and made calls to Members of Congress on behalf of the Perkins Loan Program. Our efforts have helped.

The next step will be for COHEAO to focus its efforts on the full House Appropriations Committee which will mark-up the bill in the near future and the Senate Appropriations Committee, which is expected to act in a few weeks.

If you have any questions, contact Harrison Wadsworth at hwadsworth@wpllc.net, Joan Coyle at jcoyle@wpllc.net or Andrew Stringer at astringer@wpllc.net.

Andrew Stringer
Legislative Associate
Washington Partners, LLC
(P) 202-289-3903
(F) 202-371-0197
astringer@wpllc.net