April 24, 2024

Leading the news this week: The House and Senate are both out on recess today.  Congress and The Administration have had their hands full this April with FY 25, contentious hearings, regulatory action, and most recently passing legislation that could ban Tiktok.

Now let's dive into the latest news in higher education!

FY25 Appropriations Update

ICYMI: ACCT's public policy team recently hosted a webinar focusing on the FY 2024 final allocation levels. The session featured a panel of community college leaders from Glen Oaks Community College and Kansas City Kansas Community College, who have successfully secured community project funding/congressionally directed spending (CPF-CDS). They offered invaluable guidance and best practices for institutions navigating FY 2025 CPF-CDS. You can watch the webinar recording and access the slide decks here. Note: You must log in to your ACCT Connect account. If you have not yet created an account, click here.

Community funding project guidance: The Senate Committee on Appropriations released guidelines for Members of Congress to submit requests for FY 2025 appropriations, including guidance for congressionally directed spending. The House Committee on Appropriations released guidelines for language and programmatic requests for all appropriations bills. It has not yet provided guidance on how to request community project funding, as the House is currently deliberating whether to make further changes to the CPF process this cycle.

Federal Community College Month Resolution 

Last week, Co-Chairs of the Community College Caucus Reps. Joe Courtney and Gus Bilirakis, alongside a bipartisan group of legislators, introduced House Resolution H.Res.1145. This resolution designates April as Community College Month, recognizing the invaluable role our institutions play in providing access to higher education, offering essential workforce training, and contributing to the overall economic prosperity of our nation. To read the full resolution, click here. 

Friendly reminder: The Community College Caucus provides members of Congress with a platform to discuss issues impacting community colleges nationwide, enabling them to raise awareness about the unique role our institutions play in our educational and workforce development system. Expanding the caucus membership will fortify our advocacy efforts and amplify our collective voice on the federal level. We encourage members to reach out to their House representatives and ask them to join the caucus by contacting the offices of Representatives Courtney or Bilirakis. If you need additional assistance with this, please reach out to ACCT’s government relations team at publicpolicy@acct.org.

ED Releases Final Title IX Rule

The Department of Education (ED) released its highly anticipated final rule for Title IX last Friday. This rule safeguards against discrimination rooted in sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics. It offers clarification on procedures schools must adhere to in order to prevent discrimination based on pregnancy or related conditions. Additionally, it introduces new requirements for how institutions must address notifications of potentially discriminatory conduct.

Taking a step back: ED released a notice of proposed rulemaking  on Title IX in July 2022. During the public comment period, the proposed rule received over 240,000 public comments. We've eagerly awaited ED's release of the final rule since its blog post announcing it would be published by October 2023, a deadline that, as we now know, wasn't met. It's important to note that ED's rulemaking process regarding athletic eligibility under Title IX has been proceeding separately and is not addressed in this final rule.

The final regulations will take effect on August 1, 2024. You can find the unofficial version of the final regulations here and the press release here. ED has provided a fact sheet, a summary of the major provisions, and additional resources for drafting Title IX nondiscrimination policies, notices of nondiscrimination, and grievance procedures.

SAMHSA GLS Grant

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently announced a notice of funding opportunity for their GLS Campus Suicide Prevention Grant Program. The program aims to bolster behavioral health services for college students, mitigating risks of suicide, depression, serious mental illness, and substance use disorders, while fostering help-seeking behavior, reducing stigma, and facilitating successful academic completion.

The deadline for applications is May 6, 2024. For more information, click here to review the application guide. The pre-application webinar slide deck can be found here. 

• Accepting applications on a rolling basis - SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) Cohort 2 Applications
• April 24 - EPA Call for Applications for HBCU-MSI Advisory Council Webinar
• April 25 - deadline to apply for Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program
• May 6 - GLS Campus Suicide Prevention Grant Program

Outreach Efforts

Is your institution meeting or hosting an event with federal elected officials?

We created a Congressional Contact Form that will help us track outreach efforts of community college leaders across our membership. By filling out the form, you are better informing ACCT's advocacy efforts and our advocacy team is able to continue those conversations with congressional staff in DC. 

ACCT NOW is the go-to resource for issues affecting community colleges. Our new website features original reporting and research, as well as of-the-moment legislative updates. ACCT NOW also includes articles, reports, and research from outside sources that benefit the ACCT community. Read the Latest Articles on ACCT NOW:

Have a Question?

Contact us with any questions or concerns about public policy and ACCT's advocacy on behalf of two-year colleges and two-year college trustees. ACCT's Latest Action in Washington alerts are sent to interested ACCT members to keep you up to date on important legislative activities that impact community colleges.

If you no longer wish to receive ACCT's Latest Action in Washington alerts, reply to this email with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line. For more information about ACCT's advocacy services, visit acct.org/advocacy

Spread the Word.

Please encourage your fellow trustees, presidents and colleagues to stay up to date about legislation that affects their community colleges by joining the Latest Action in Washington (LAW) Alert network. To join, simply register here. 

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