NAGPS MISSION STATEMENT

Under NAGPS' bylaws, the NAGPS Legislative Concerns Committee is responsible for assisting NAGPS in development of its legislative policy by submitting a proposed Annual Federal Legislative Platform for consideration and approval by the membership at the general business meeting of the national conference. While the Legislative Platform is not an exclusive expression of the federal legislative issues of concern to the Association, it sets out NAGPS' main public policy priorities for the coming year.

NAGPS encourages local graduate and professional student governments to incorporate this Federal Legislative Platform in the creation of their own local legislative agendas and to formally endorse this NAGPS Legislative Platform. Further, NAGPS seeks to work with the higher education community to formulate policies affecting NAGPS' membership that advance national goals and objectives.

Pursuant to H.R. 2202 of 1996 (Illegal Immigration Reform & Immigrant Responsibility Act), H.R. 3162 of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act) and H.R. 3525 of 2002 (Enhanced Border Security Act), the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Bureau has implemented the new "Student and Exchange Visitor Information System" (SEVIS) to track the international student population in this country. As of January 30, 2003, SEVIS participation is mandatory for all schools issuing I-20s for foreign students.

NAGPS is concerned about students losing status due to bureaucratic failures in the SEVIS system itself. NAGPS specifically calls for the ability of international students to transfer and continue degrees without any obstacles and to be provided a 60-day grace period to appeal a loss of status.

NAGPS urges the Federal government to bear the cost for the operation of SEVIS rather than imposing this burden on individual students or the host institutions.

NAGPS strictly opposes blanket bans on international student entry based on their country of origin and/or field of study. NAGPS urges the government to reverse its decision to single out students on the basis of their country of origin and/or field of study, while remaining attentive to potential threats to the nation's security.

NAGPS supports all reasonable efforts to shorten student visa and security check processing times.

NAGPS urges university officials and higher education organizations to work for fairer student visa policies and actively advocate for their students whose visas have been unfairly denied or delayed.

NAGPS urges that all student visas, regardless of the student's country of origin and/or field of study, should be multiple-entry and of a duration consistent with that of the student's educational program. NAGPS believes that international students should be fully able to travel abroad to pursue scholarly opportunities and visit their families.

NAGPS urges lawmakers and administrators to respect international students' civil and human rights and to uphold their rights to due process.

NAGPS supports the right of legal immigrants to pursue a graduate or professional education without impediment and to participate in federal student aid programs. As permanent residents of the United States, legal immigrants should be entitled to participate in student aid programs.

As the cost of graduate and professional education continues to rise, the accompanying debt burden has also risen sharply. Expanding availability of the tax deductibility of student loan interest would ease the growing debt burden as well as reaffirm the importance of graduate and professional education as an essential investment in the future of the nation.

The Tax Relief Act of 2001 eliminated the 60-month limit on student loan interest deductions and increased the student loan interest deduction income limitation to $65,000 for single taxpayers and from $75,000 to $135,000 for married taxpayers.

NAGPS urges the Congress to index the income limitation to the rate of inflation.

Many graduate/professional students would prefer to apply their newly acquired talents by working in nonprofit fields, public service, or underserved areas, but are precluded from making that career choice by the burden of student loan debt. NAGPS urges the adoption and implementation of policies to encourage such career choices through programs of loan forgiveness or forbearance.

NAGPS opposes any efforts to cut funding from the Federal student loan programs. NAGPS also opposes any measure that would result in increased loan costs to students, such as the elimination of the six-month interest grace period for graduate/professional students, increases in loan origination fees, or taxes on total loan volume at a university.

Currently students receive one six-month grace period after leaving post-secondary education for payment on their federal student loans. Because many graduate and professional students use the grace period between completion of their undergraduate degree and their matriculation into an advanced degree program, NAGPS calls for the implementation of another six-month grace period upon the completion of one academic year of full-time course work toward an advanced degree.

NAGPS objects to subsidy payments to lenders and urges Congress to investigate alternative means for funding student loan programs. NAGPS further urges that the resulting available monies currently directed to lender subsidies be channeled to higher education programs, including graduate and professional fellowships.

NAGPS opposes efforts to limit or eliminate the Federal Direct Student Loan Program (FDSLP). NAGPS believes competition between FDSLP and the federally guaranteed Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) is beneficial to students and is the most suitable way to determine which program is better. NAGPS supports allowing students and universities to choose between the two programs, rather than having Congress decide.

According to a study by the US Public Interest Research Group, since 1990 the amount of outstanding Stafford student loans has more than doubled. Concerns have been expressed that students are accumulating unreasonable amounts of student loan debt, constricting their career choices and preventing them from contributing to the economy as consumers.

NAGPS supports education programs to make students aware of the consequences of student loans to finance undergraduate. graduate, and professional education. NAGPS also supports increased levels of grant assistance to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, to minimize reliance on loans.

As Congress reauthorizes the Higher Education Act, NAGPS urges it to consider the following items:

 

Preserve and expand the graduate fellowship programs authorized within the Higher Education Act: the Javits, Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) and Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity fellowships.

 

Maintain and continue to fund both the Federal Direct Student Loan Program (FDSLP) and the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) in order to offer students the maximum spectrum of choices to suit their individual needs.

 

Raise the borrowing limit for unsubsidized Stafford loans to ensure that it will cover the entire cost of attendance at a first professional program.

 

Ensure that the borrowing limits for the Stafford and all other HEA-authorized student loan programs, as well as any maximum income limitations specified within the HEA, are indexed to increase with inflation.

 

Preserve and expand those loan forgiveness programs that encourage new graduates to work in nonprofit and public service careers or in underserved areas, such as the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) and the income-contingent repayment option of the FDLSP. The maximum repayment period before loan forgiveness under these programs should not exceed fifteen years.

 

Amend the regulations governing income limitations to ensure that only the income of a loan or scholarship applicant is considered, as opposed to the income of a spouse or domestic partner or other family member.

 

Retain the fixed-interest-rate student loan consolidation program, so that students can continue to choose whether a fixed or variable rate loan better meets their needs.

 

Permit students to consolidate loans while the students are still enrolled and to reconsolidate previously consolidated student loans at least once.

Federal grants to universities are a crucial part of graduate and professional education, which ensures the United States' competitive position in the global economy. In the face of an uncertain economic picture for the foreseeable future, NAGPS urges the Administration and Congress to maintain or increase the amount of federal funding provided for traditional and emerging fields of study at America's colleges and universities.

NAGPS urges the Congress to make it a policy that federally funded research grants give preference to proposals that include funding for graduate assistants and graduate research.

NAGPS supports funding graduate and professional students on an individual, departmental or institutional basis in preference to funding through individual faculty grants. NAGPS strongly supports federal funding for graduate fellowships. Since the 1970s, the number of graduate fellowships offered by the federal government has decreased at the same time that the number of graduate and professional students has grown. NAGPS affirms the vital importance of graduate fellowship programs as a means of training tomorrow's scholars, scientists and leaders of industry, government and education.

NAGPS urges the Administration and Congress to provide, wherever possible, additional sources of grant funding for graduate and professional students. Specifically, NAGPS supports increased funding for the graduate fellowship programs included in the Higher Education Act (Javits Fellowships, GAANN - Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need - Fellowships, and the Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity Program).

NAGPS also supports graduate and professional fellowship programs that are portable and that provide educational opportunities to traditionally underrepresented groups, as well as to traditionally underfunded disciplines.

NAGPS supports the reporting of educational outcomes of graduate and professional students who receive federal support. NAGPS also supports the public's access to these results from colleges and universities.

NAGPS supports the cultural and intellectual diversity of the academy to promote international understanding and collaboration, and suggests the creation of federal fellowships for international students.

NAGPS opposes denial or delay of access to financial aid based on a student's current or prior conviction for drug-related offenses. NAGPS calls upon the Congress to overturn any and all provisions in the Higher Education Act or other Federal education legislation that authorize such denial or delay.

Tax incentives for graduate and professional students are an investment in America's future. Such investment creates a highly trained workforce of leaders in industry, government, and education. Until 1986, graduate student funding was tax-exempt. Currently, it is not.

NAGPS will actively support and participate in efforts to broaden tax exemptions and deductions for graduate and professional education expenses and to protect all such existing exemptions and deductions.

NAGPS also urges the Congress and Administration to pass legislation and implement regulations that would include the following provisions:

 

make institutions aware of the FICA exemption for graduate and professional students, such that students are eligible for the exemption as long as they maintain satisfactory enrollment status as defined by their colleges and universities; and

 

maintain the FICA exempt status of graduate and professional students, particularly research and teaching assistants funded by universities; and

 

ensure that universities, lenders, and other parties provide timely and free reports to students about qualified tuition and expenses that may be deductible under the Lifetime Learning Credit.

NAGPS encourages the appointment of a graduate and professional education coordinator within the Office of Postsecondary Education in the United States Department of Education (ED) specifically charged with

development of national strategies, federal legislation and administrative policies designed to encourage the pursuit of a graduate/professional education and to serve the nation's growing population of graduate/professional students; and

 

coordination of graduate/professional education and student support services within other divisions and offices within the Department; and

 

establishment of an ED Graduate/Professional Education Advisory Committee comprised of university and student representatives; and

 

serving as a graduate/professional education advocate on various ED committees and projects where graduate and professional students' and schools' interests are involved.

NAGPS believes that education is a continuum from kindergarten through the graduate and professional level. NAGPS believes that no one level of educational funding should be pitted against another. NAGPS therefore supports additional funding to K-12 and to undergraduate programs from sources other than graduate and professional student programs.

NAGPS firmly opposes any attempt to infringe on the First Amendment rights of students and their elected representatives to establish and fund their own programs, to publish scholarly work without fear of reprisal, and to engage in advocacy, lobbying, or debate. NAGPS supports student efforts to organize and engage in public policy debates; such acts are a vital part of the democratic process.