White House Updates

The Obama administration is very good at disseminating information. Every other day or so I get an email from the White House media that is targeted in some way at Pennsylvania. I'm impressed with their organizational skills. Sometimes they send items of general interest. This has been a busy week and several emails came through. I'm posting a clump of them together.

PA On Track with Stimulus Spending

Vice President Biden Applauds Pennsylvania for Meeting Recovery Act Milestone Ahead of Schedule

Pennsylvania Obligated Half of Its Highway Funds on May 20

Washington, DC – Vice President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that transportation projects funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) are putting people to work and building a foundation for the country’s long-term economic strength.

As part of the Administration’s effort to infuse Recovery Act funds swiftly into the economy, states are required under ARRA to obligate 50 percent of their highway funds by June 29, 2009. Working in coordination with the U.S. Department of Transportation, all 55 U.S. states and territories successfully beat this deadline at least 10 days ahead of schedule.

Nationwide, to date, $19 billion has been obligated to fund over 5,300 approved for highway and other transportation projects nationwide. Of those, 1,900 projects are already underway. Already in Pennsylvania, the state has put to work $447.6 million in highway funds – or 62.3 percent – of the funds required under the Act.

“Our number one priority with the Recovery Act is getting folks back to work – and there is no better way to do that in these early days than by putting shovels in the ground and jump-starting projects like these that create jobs and boost local communities,” said Vice President Biden. “By delivering on these projects ahead of schedule and under-budget, we have been able to do even more than we expected -- create more job opportunities more quickly, with more dollars left over to put toward more projects that put people back on the job.”

As of today, Pennsylvania’s largest ARRA-funded project is the SR60 Interchange Reconstruction in Allegheny County. This $13.8 million project will include the installation of two new signals, signal work and signing in Robinson and North Fayette Townships. When completed, this project will improve traffic safety through the replacement of a cloverleaf-type ramp with a diamond-type configuration and adding a collector/distributor lane.

Across the country, many transportation projects funded by the Recovery Act are coming in under budget and ahead of schedule. Reports continue to show that contractor bids to build and repair transportation networks are coming in substantially below the original engineering estimates. In some cases, thanks to fierce competition for the work, bids are 10, 20 and even 30 percent lower than expected. That means states are able to stretch taxpayer dollars, completing additional projects and creating even more jobs.

“Every state not only met the 120-day deadline, they beat it,” said Secretary LaHood. “This is a testament to the fact that we’re putting money out there quickly and helping to get the economy back on track.”

President Obama signed ARRA on February 17, 2009, and funding was made available on March 3. ARRA funding for highway projects may be used for restoration, repair, construction, and other activities under the Surface Transportation Program. Each proposed project must be approved by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Governors must certify that proposed projects meet certain conditions and that the state will use ARRA funds in addition to, not in replacement of, state funding of transportation projects.

Priority is given to projects that are projected to be completed within three years, are located in economically distressed areas, or will maximize job creation and economic benefits.

Green Jobs Training Grants

During a visit to Memphis today, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced five grant competitions, totaling $500 million, to fund projects that prepare workers for green jobs in the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries.

“Emerging green jobs are creating opportunities for workers to enter careers that offer good wages and pathways to long term job growth and prosperity,” said Secretary Solis. “Workers receiving training through projects funded by these competitions will be at the forefront as our nation transforms the way we generate electricity, manufacture products and do business across a wide range of industries.”

Four of the competitions announced today are designed to serve workers in need of training through various national, state and community outlets: Energy Training Partnership Grants; Pathways Out of Poverty Grants; State Energy Sector Partnership and Training Grants; and Green Capacity Building Grants. The fifth competition, for State Labor Market Information Improvement Grants, will fund state workforce agencies that will collect, analyze and disseminate labor market information and develop labor exchange infrastructure to direct individuals to careers in green industries. Detailed information on grant opportunities can be found in each grant solicitation.

Grants awarded through this competition will be funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). In an effort to earn the maximum return on each investment, the Labor Department is encouraging grantees funded through these competitions to align their work with other federal agencies’ Recovery Act investments intended to create jobs and promote economic growth. Programs funded through these grants will be conducted in partnership with the public workforce system in order to prepare workers to enter careers in targeted industries.

A notice of these grant solicitations is in today’s edition of the Federal Register and is also available at http://www.doleta.gov/grants/find_grants.cfm and http://www.grants.gov. Dates and times for applicant virtual conferences are found in each SGA. For more information on the array of Department of Labor employment and training investments and opportunities, visit http://www.doleta.gov.

To learn more about the Recovery Act and efforts across the country to move the economy forward, visit http://www.Recovery.gov.

Simplifying College Financial Aid

MAKING COLLEGE MORE AFFORDABLE BY SIMPLIFYING THE STUDENT FINANCIAL AID APPLICATION

“I'll simplify the financial aid application process so that we don't have a million students who aren't applying for aid because it's too difficult.” – President Barack Obama

America’s future economic strength depends on the quality of our education. Countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow. President Barack Obama is calling for America to once again lead the world in college graduates. He has proposed nearly $200 billion in new scholarships and tax credits for college tuition, and Vice President Joe Biden is examining new ideas for college affordability through his Middle Class Task Force.

Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan outlined another key component of the Administration’s higher education agenda: its plan to simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The form imposes a needlessly difficult obstacle in the path of 16 million college students and their families each year. Each student is asked as many as 153 questions, most of which have little or no effect on actual financial aid packages. Experts believe that the difficulty of the application and unpredictability of the aid awards undermine student aid’s ability to reach students who are unsure whether they can afford college. And there are 1.5 million enrolled students who are probably eligible for Pell grants but failed to apply.

In the coming months, the Departments of Education and Treasury will work together to simplify the financial aid process by modernizing the online application, seeking legislation that will eliminate unnecessary questions, and creating an easy process for students to apply by using tax data already available. The end result will be an application that requests only easily obtainable personal information. Students will be able to complete an application with only basic, personal information and a few clicks of their mouse.

THREE STEPS TO A SIMPLER APPLICATION

Today, Secretary Duncan is announcing (1) a shorter and simpler online application that skips unnecessary questions, (2) legislation to remove more than half of the financial questions, and (3) a web application that will let some families easily answer the remaining financial questions with data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

FIRST: Overhaul the Online Application. The Department of Education is making a series of improvements to the online application. Although 98 percent of students apply online, much of the online form simply reproduces the paper version rather than taking advantage of the interactive potential. Improvements to the form–which will eliminate 250 million questions a year--include:

• More Information: Since May, the Education Department has provided students instant estimates of Pell grant and student loan eligibility, rather than forcing them to wait weeks, and a link to more college information such as graduation rates.

• Skip Irrelevant Questions: Starting this summer, the Education Department will allow students who are at least 24 or married–who are automatically exempted from providing their parents’ financial information--to skip the remaining 11 questions intended only to determine whether parental information is necessary. Other improvements will allow men older than 26 to skip the question about Selective Service registration and consolidate the three questions on homelessness.

• More Improvements in January: A series of additional improvements will be implemented in January. Students with low incomes will no longer be asked for asset information, which is not used to determine their aid eligibility. Only returning students will be asked about prior drug convictions because the question does not affect first-year students. And the Education Department will work with state agencies to make it easier to answer questions that the states need but the federal government does not.

SECOND: Eliminate Questions through Legislation. Applying for financial aid is far more complicated than filing a tax return; students and their parents must answer as many dozens of questions about their income and assets that are not on the federal tax form. These questions are often difficult to verify, and they add very little to the rest of the aid formulas. The six questions related to assets, for example, only affect the awards of 3 percent of Pell grant recipients, while penalizing those families for saving for college and opening up loopholes for sophisticated applicants to game the formula.

Today, Secretary Duncan called on Congress to let students and families apply for financial aid with the information on their tax returns, without needing to gather bank statements, investment information, and documentation of any untaxed income. These changes would make the student aid application simpler and fairer, and they would open the door to using IRS data for the remaining financial questions, reducing the FAFSA to easy personal questions.

THIRD: Answer the Remaining Financial Questions with Tax Data. When applying for student aid, more than 90 percent of students and families are giving the federal government information it already has–information they provided when they filed their taxes. The answer to up to 20 financial questions–all questions that will remain if the proposed legislation is enacted–could be provided by the IRS. Students applying online will only need to provide easily available personal information.

Beginning in January, students applying for financial aid for the spring semester will be able to seamlessly retrieve their relevant tax information from the IRS for easy completion of the online FAFSA. The Departments of Education and Treasury will be working together to examine the possibility of expanding this option to all students in the future.

THE OBAMA-BIDEN AGENDA FOR COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY

The simplification initiatives announced today build on President Obama’s accomplishments and commitments to higher educational opportunities, including:

• Setting Ambitious Goals for America: President Obama has asked every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training to help meet a new national goal: by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.

• Expanding Pell Grants and College Tax Credits: The Recovery Act increased Pell Grants by $500 to $5,350 and created the American Opportunity Tax Credit, a new $2,500 tax credit for four years of college tuition. The President’s 2010 Budget proposal would make these policies permanent and ensure the Pell Grant continues to grow steadily by making it an entitlement. Together, they provide approximately $200 billion in college scholarships and tax credits over the next decade.

• Modernizing and Expanding the Perkins Loan Program: The President’s 2010 Budget proposes to make this vital program available to over 2,600 additional schools and an estimated 2.7 million additional students each year. By providing an additional $5 billion in additional Perkins Loans and continuing their low five percent interest rate, President Obama hopes that the neediest of students will have access to additional federal financial resources they did not have before.

• Creating a New College Access and Completion Fund: In this 2010 Budget proposal, President Obama proposes a five-year, $2.5 billion fund to build federal-state-local partnerships aimed at improving college access and completion, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds. These funds would be used to evaluate programs aimed at increasing college enrollment and graduation and to grow and bring to scale programs that are proven to be successful.

• Helping Families Save for College: The President’s Middle Class Task Force has directed the Treasury Department to investigate ways for 529 savings plans to more effectively and efficiently help families save for college.