DC Digest - June 4, 2010

In Today's Issue:

  • House Passes Measure to Reauthorize the America COMPETES Act
  • Akaka Unveils Plan for Big Changes to GI Bill
  • James Kvaal Appointed Education Deputy Under Secretary
  • Obama to Nominate Subra Suresh as Director of the National Science Foundation


HOUSE PASSES MEASURE TO REAUTHORIZE THE AMERICA COMPETES ACT
After several previous attempts, the House of Representatives on May 28 voted 262-150 to approve the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (H.R. 5116). The legislation authorizes $85.6 billion in spending over the next five years, and authorizes a continuation of the budget-doubling trend established in the original act for key science agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Read More:
House Passes Measure to Reauthorize the America COMPETES Act (American Council on Education)
House Committee on Science and Technology Press Release


AKAKA UNVEILS PLAN FOR BIG CHANGES TO GI BILL
The chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee has unveiled his plans for improving the Post-9/11 GI Bill, including one change certain to please active-duty members using the new education benefits program. Under the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010, introduced Thursday, active-duty users of the new GI Bill would be eligible for a $1,000-a-year book allowance, which is currently paid to veterans but denied to active-duty service members and their spouses using transferred benefits. That is still not the biggest change he is contemplating.

Read More:
Akaka unveils plan for big changes to GI Bill (Army Times)


JAMES KVAAL APPOINTED EDUCATION DEPUTY UNDER SECRETARY
 Education Department officials confirmed Wednesday that James Kvaal, a special assistant at the White House National Economic Council, would fill Robert Shireman's soon-to-be-vacated position of deputy under secretary. Kvaal and Shireman have worked closely together since joining the Obama administration, with Shireman largely setting the postsecondary agenda within the Education Department, and Kvaal, as an adviser to President Obama, playing a key role in steering and selling that agenda.
Kvaal has North Carolina connections as well, having served as education advisor to then Senator John Edwards beginning in 2003 and as the policy director for Edwards’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

Read More:
James Kvaal Appointed Education Deputy Under Secretary (Inside Higher Ed)


OBAMA TO NOMINATE SUBRA SURESH AS DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
President Obama announced his plan to nominate Subra Suresh as Director of the National Science Foundation. Suresh is currently Dean of the School of Engineering and the Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  From 2000 to 2006, Dr. Suresh served as the head of the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering. 

Read More:
President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts (White House)