Congress

When it comes to student aid, President Obama has made his wishes clear: he wants Congress to use the savings it derives from eliminating the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program to make Pell Grants a true entitlement for low-income students. But as Democratic Congressional leaders take up legislation to enact the President's plan, they are likely to have other ideas about how this money should be spent.

Some lawmakers will surely be tempted to take advantage of this opportunity and push for an extension of an interest rate reduction Congress approved in 2007 on subsidized federal student loans. Doing so would prevent a sudden rise in the student loan interest rate -- from 3.4 to 6.8 percent -- at the tail end of Obama's first term, when the rate cut is set to expire.

At Higher Ed Watch, we recognize that allowing the rate reduction to expire in 2012 would be a politically risky move. Nonetheless, we would strongly urge Congressional leaders to stay faithful to Obama's plan. The administration has handed them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put the Pell Grant program on a firm financial footing by financing it entirely with mandatory funds. Diverting funds to pay for an interest rate cut could cripple this effort, without providing much of a public policy benefit.

So many of us have gotten so immersed in aspects of the health reform conversation—costs, crowd-out, public health insurance plan, mandates—that it's easy to overlook the following:

For the first time in 15 years, a Congressional committee has taken up legislation that seeks to provide affordable health coverage for all Americans while controlling costs and improving value.

Senators on both sides of the aisle in the Senate HELP Committee acknowledge historic nature of today as they started marking up the American Health Choices Act (615-page pdf) this morning. They paid tribute to the absent Senator Edward Kennedy for his tireless work on this issue. They acknowledged the opportunity before them and the imperative for action. Then, they started the process of trying to craft legislation that could reshape and redefine health care in America.

Senator Chris Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who has been leaading the effort on Kennedy's behalf, began by acknowledging the difficulty of the task, but he stressed, "I don't think there's an ounce of difference about the principles we are trying to achieve," and assured members that "when it comes down to it we're going to get this right." Paraphrasing Edward Murrow, Dodd concluded: "The one excuse that history will never forgive you for is that the problem's too hard."

The Committee will reconvene at 2:30 pm and continue with opening statements. A webcast of the session is available here. The events are also being broadcast as C-Span 3 and you can follow our live play-by-play on Twitter. Here's a quick rundown of this morning's highlights:

We'll be tweeting the Senate HELP Committee's markup of the Affordable Health Choices Act. You can follow our coverage of the event live on Twitter (tag: #healthreform), and read our wrap up of the markup later today.

The ongoing debate over whether health reform should include a public health insurance plan is beginning to remind us of an all too familiar exercise in hard choices—deciding where to go to lunch with your co-workers.

It starts out so simple. You and your co-workers want to go out to lunch. You all agree that lunch is a good thing, a necessary thing. The status quo of hunger and boredom just cannot continue.

But where to go?

The trillion dollar question (over 10 years...) on Capitol Hill remains how to finance a comprehensive overhaul of our health care system. With Congress expected to markup actual legislation next week, lawmakers are getting more specific.

"Mount Obey" isn't on the map, but it's a well-known landmark on Congressional terrain. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel rrecently ran a colorful profile of Rep.

You can take the President out of the country, but you can't take health care off his mind.

In his weekly address, made at the end of an historic trip to the Middle East and Europe, President Obama laid out his goals for health reform, stressing that "fixing what's wrong with our health care system is no longer a luxury we hope to achieve—it's a necessity we cannot postpone any longer."

Gentlemen (and Gentlewomen), start your engines.

To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, Don Quixote had only Sancho Panza at his side. President Barack Obama has the email addresses of over 13 million supporters at the click of a button.

On Thursday, the Man from the White House asked the vaunted grassroots operation that helped put him there, to turn their efforts to health care.

Health reform must be bipartisan to be politically and economically sustainable over time. That is why I am pleased to see Republicans continue to engage in the health reform debate by participating in the committee process and offering original legislation.