Well. That was quick.....

Ok, we have a deal. Struck late yesterday afternoon. Well, among the leadership--House, Senate and WH. Rank and file members are taking it all in today.

So what's in it? A conference committee report has not been released. But the press releases have. Speaker Pelosi issued one and here are some areas that affect higher education:

• Investing in Scientific Research (More than $15 Billion)
  o Provides $3 billion for the National Science Foundation, for basic research in fundamental science and engineering – which spurs discovery and innovation.
  o Provides $1.6 billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which funds research in such areas as climate science, biofuels, high-energy physics, nuclear physics and fusion energy sciences – areas crucial to our energy future.
  o Provides $400 million for the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to support high-risk, high-payoff research into energy sources and energy efficiency in collaboration with industry.
  o Provides $580 million for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, including the Technology Innovation Program and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
  o Provides $8.5 billion for NIH, including expanding good jobs in biomedical research to study diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, and heart disease.
  o Provides $1 billion for NASA, including $400 million to put more scientists to work doing climate change research.
  o Provides $1.5 billion for NIH to renovate university research facilities and help them compete for biomedical research grants.
• Extending Broadband Services
  o Provides $7 billion for extending broadband services to underserved communities across the country, so that rural and inner-city businesses can compete with any company in the world.
  o For every dollar invested in broadband, the economy sees a ten-fold return on that investment.

Some other general educational provisions were noted, yet it is not altogether clear higher education's role (sans the financial aid piece) in some of this--infrastructure for one:

• Preventing Teacher Layoffs and Education Cuts by the States
  o Prevents teacher layoffs and other cutbacks in education and other key services, by establishing a $53.6 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, including $40.6 billion to local school districts using existing funding formulas, which can be used for preventing cutbacks, preventing layoffs, school modernization, or other purposes; $5 billion to states as bonus grants for meeting key performance measures in education; and $8 billion to states for other high priority needs such as public safety and other critical services, which may include education.
• Making College More Affordable
  o Increases the higher education tax credit to a maximum of $2,500. Also makes it available to nearly 4 million low-income students who had not had any access to the higher education tax credit in the past – by making it partially refundable.
  o Increases the maximum Pell Grant by $500, for a maximum of $5,350 in 2009 and $5,550 in 2010.
  o Adds $200 million to the vital College Work-Study program.

As soon as specifics are released, I'll post......