McKeon gets fed.up: federal legislator urges administrators to head to new Web site, speeding changes in higher ed regulation - In The News

University Business, March, 2002 by Katherine Grayson

When the Hon. Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-CA) took the podium at the recent NAICU (National Assn. of Independent Colleges and Universities) conference in Washington, D.C., it was not merely to accept the Award for Advocacy of Higher Education. It was to encourage college presidents and administrators to be more "transparent" in their efforts to get what they need from the nation's legislators.

"You need to go after new and creative ways," he advised the audience of 400 top-level attendees. Fortunately for NATCU members, this is one legislator who's willing to take his own advice. In an effort to speed through Congress much-needed federal regulation changes, McKeon and the authorizing subcommittee for student aid programs (of which he is Chair) have set up a new Web site cleverly tagged "Fed.up," to aid the process. Get out your pencils for the URL: http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/107th/education/fedup/index.htm.> "There are 800 pages of federal regulations in higher ed," McKeon announced to the all-too-knowing attendees. "We need to know which regulations must be changed, why they must be altered, and how they should be modified." According to the representative (who readily admitted that legislators are commonly rotated off committees just as they're getting a handle on their committee issues), educators--not politicians--are best equipped to make these determinations. He urged NAICU members to visit the site as soon as possible, and simply indicate which regulations they would like to see changed; how; and why.

"With that information, we can quickly move ahead and revise the non-controversial items; then we can fight for the controversial changes." The first round of changes will pass this summer, McKeon promised.

"This is simply a smart, practical approach to making the jobs of educators easier--without interference from Washington," he offered bluntly.

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