August 01, 2005

Legislative Updates from Capitol Hill: Higher Education Sustainability Act

In partnership with several 'education for sustainability' (EFS) organizations, the Campaign has focused the bulk of its recent advocacy efforts on promoting the Higher Education Sustainability Act (HESA) of 2005.

In short, HESA would provide up to $50 million in grants for the purposes of establishing and furthering sustainability programs and curricula at institutions of higher education throughout the nation.

In order to secure passage of HESA, our strategy-as guided by various members of the House Education Committee-was to have HESA attached as an amendment to reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) when considered by the Committee in late July.

In order to gain support for the amendment from key Education Committee members, the Campaign and its partners activated a nation-wide network of individuals committed to EFS, including allies within the business community. Although our efforts were restricted by a very short timeframe, we succeeded within 36 hours in securing letters of support from representatives at nearly 30 institutions and businesses. The signatories on these letters included several university presidents and industry CEOs.

When HESA came up for a vote within the Education Committee on July 20th, the members voted along party lines (26-22) with the one exception of Congressman Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) who broke rank with Republican leadership in acting as a co-sponsor of the bill. In fact, during debate on HESA, Congressman Ehlers made a rather substantial argument for sustainability as a concept.

Because this party-line vote did not permit our proposed HESA amendment, several of the original co-sponsors (Congressmen Blumenauer (D-OR), Wu (D-OR), Grijalva (D-AZ), and Ehlers) are now considering offering HESA again as an amendment to the HEA when the reauthorization comes up for a vote on the full House floor. Meanwhile, the Campaign and its partners are evaluating other strategies for promoting HESA, including work within the Senate and its HELP Committee (the Senate's counterpart to the House Education Committee).

Under the current political climate, this bill is encountering some roadblocks. Nonetheless, it is vital that this initiative continue to surge forward. We will continue to educate Members of Congress about the basic ideas behind sustainability as well as the important role of higher education in creating a sustainable world-all through collective action from our community.