Robert C Scott

The Democratic-led House Education and Labor Committee on Tuesday began debate on a sweeping overhaul of federal student loans and other higher education programs, but without bipartisan support. 

Among numerous other provisions, the 1,165-page bill would expand Pell Grants, tweak the Federal Work-Study Program, direct more aid to minority-serving institutions, emphasize campus safety, and set several new requirements designed to hold institutions — particularly for-profit colleges — accountable.

Once, American colleges and universities enjoyed bipartisan support, and Republicans and Democrats alike believed in the value of higher education.

Today, not so much. And that could be a big issue as Congress considers reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, a version of which House Democrats unveiled Tuesday. 

Updated 12:46 p.m. | The House voted 231-199 Thursday to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour incrementally over six years, but the Democratic effort was almost derailed by divisions between progressives and moderates.

Progressives on Wednesday had issued a last-minute warning to their moderate colleagues not to help Republicans make any last-minute changes to the bill through the procedural maneuver known as a motion to recommit, or MTR. If moderate Democrats helped the GOP add what the progressives considered poison pill language to the measure, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus were prepared to vote against it, the group’s co-chairs, Reps. Mark Pocan and Pramila Jayapal, said. 

The Congressional Budget Office said in a report released Monday that nearly doubling the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour could cost 1.3 million jobs when fully implemented by 2025, though millions would see higher wages and the number of Americans living in poverty would decrease.

The report made clear that its estimate of 1.3 million potential job losses, which would equal roughly 0.8 percent of the workforce, was a median forecast, and that job losses could be substantially smaller — or larger. In a worst-case scenario, some 3.7 million jobs could be lost, the agency said. On the other hand, wages could rise for as many as 27 million workers.

Updated 10:43 p.m. | The House Education and Labor Committee was forced to change a longtime voting practice after the House parliamentarian said what the panel was doing violated House rules.

Since roughly 2007 — extending to when both Republicans and Democrats controlled the committee — it had allowed members who missed votes to add their names to markup tallies after the votes had concluded, as long as the added votes did not change the outcome.

The majority of Virginia’s Democratic delegation on Friday night called for the resignation of Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who’s facing allegations of sexual assault from two women. 

Only Robert C. Scott, the dean of the House delegation, and Sen. Mark Warner did not call for Fairfax's resignation immediately.

Virginia Democratic Rep. Robert C. Scott became aware roughly a year ago, during the height of the #MeToo movement, of the sexual assault allegation that has surfaced against commonwealth Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, according to a news account.

Fairfax’s accuser, Vanessa Tyson, told Scott, whom she has known for about a decade, directly, according to an ABC News report and a statement from the congressman.

Former Virginia Rep. Jim Moran is sticking by commonwealth Gov. Ralph Northam after a photo in Northam’s medical school yearbook surfaced showing a man wearing blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan outfit.

Northam has cast doubt that he appears in the photo, even though it’s on his individual page in the yearbook.

After a Saturday press conference at which Virginia Gov. Ralph S. Northam refused to step down, Democratic members of Virginia’s congressional delegation intensified their calls for the governor to resign.

Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and the dean of the House delegation, Rep. Robert C. Scott, issued a joint statement Saturday night explicitly calling for the governor to step aside after being more subtle in their initial statements Friday night. 

Democratic House members marched from their chamber to the Senate Thursday afternoon, walking onto the floor just as the upper chamber took votes on two competing proposals that would have reopened government.

Their message is to urge senators to vote “to end the Trump-McConnell shutdown,” Rep. Barbara Lee said.