The Associated Press is now reporting that Tommy Thompson, head of Health and Human Services, is resigning today.

Mark McClellan, currently heading Medicare, is rumored to be next in line to succeed Thompson. McClellan's brother Scott currently is the White House press secretary.

Some news sources are now reporting that Asa Hutchinson, the former head of the DEA and current undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security, will resign shortly. Hutchinson had been in the race to succeed Tom Ridge, but Kerik's impending nomination left that possibility out.

President Bush is reportedly set to nominate Bernard B. Kerik for the position of Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, succeeding Tom Ridge.

In a surprise move, U.N. Ambassador John C. Danforth announced his resignation, after spending five months on the job. Danforth had been in the running for the position of Secretary of State, but will now return home to St. Louis.

President Bush today selected Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns (R) to be the next secretary of Agriculture. If confirmed by the Senate, Johanns will take over the agency from Ann Veneman, who announced her resignation last month.

Farmland conservation and forestry groups have said they expect little change in the direction of the administration on forest policy issues. But the next agriculture secretary could usher in a new realm in farm policy as Congress begins to debate the 2007 farm bill.

“Governor Johanns has some challenges ahead of him in terms of managing farm program spending and writing the 2007 farm bill,” said National Pork Producers Council President Keith Berry. “But we believe with his knowledge and experience, he is more than up to the task.”

Ralph Grossi, president of American Farmland Trust, said he was hopeful that Johanns could further bolster farmland conservation, which critics say USDA has failed to champion at a level needed to support the nation’s farming community. “We believe that Governor Johann’s experience with Nebraska’s agriculture producers and his many farm trade missions can help develop new policies that enable more farmers to manage risk, create new markets at home and abroad, reward environmental stewardship, give consumers healthier food choices, and provide more return to the taxpayer,” Grossi said.

“We especially are hopeful that he will lead the effort to reform U.S. farm policy with the next farm bill,” Grossi added. “With his leadership, we can craft a bill that is a win-win for agriculture and the environment as well as farmers and consumers.”

Johanns, 54, was born in Iowa and raised on a dairy farm, but has spent much of his adult life in public service. He is a lawyer and served in county and city government before becoming mayor of Lincoln, Neb., in 1991, and then governor in 1998. He was the first Republican in more than 40 years to win re-election in Nebraska in 2002, when he took 69 percent of the vote.

Today, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge informed President Bush he was leaving his position.

Some of the names mentioned to replace Ridge include former Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and current White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend.

Although the Labor, HHS and Education bill is the largest of the annual domestic spending bills, less than one-third of it is for discretionary programs under the annual control of appropriators. The remainder is mandatory spending for entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

The fiscal 2005 Labor, HHS bill which passed Nov. 20 as part of the omnibus spending package would provide $497.6 billion -- $143 billion of it in discretionary spending. (The total does not include a 0.8 percent across-the-board cut in discretionary accounts.)

The final bill does not include $12.8 billion for Title I education programs for low-income school districts, a $500 million increase over fiscal 2004. The measure also provides $10.7 billion for special education grants to states, a $607 million increase over 2004.

The National Institutes of Health are slated to get a 3 percent increase to $28.6 billion, $73 million above the House level and $300 million below the Senate’s. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is to receive $2.2 billion, including $300 million in emergency funding. Abstinence-only sex education programs are to get $100 million, $30 million more than in fiscal 2004 but $82 million less than the White House requested.

The Bush administration was successful in securing funding for priority projects that received little support in Congress. The final bill includes $20 million, half the amount requested, for a prisoner re-entry program that allows religious groups to receive funds to help convicts make the transition back into society. It also includes a $250 million Bush proposal to develop partnerships between community colleges and employers in high-demand industries. The bill, however, does not fund the president’s $50 million proposal for re-employment job training vouchers.

Some of the hot button issues that were attached to the FY 05 Labor, HHS appropriations bill included: overtime pay rules, student loan rates and state school funding formulas.

Both the House and Senate bills included language that would have sharply limited new overtime pay rules. The administration says the rules will make 1.3 million low-income workers eligible for overtime pay for the first time. However, critics contend that as many as 6 million other workers could lose their eligibility because their jobs will be reclassified as exempt professional positions. Conferees dropped the provision under a White House veto threat.

With respect to student loan rates, the House bill contained an amendment that would have eliminated certain types of college loans that guarantee lenders a higher return than other federally subsidized loans. Under pressure, Republicans pushed through separate legislation that eliminated the subsidy for one year.

The Senate Labor, HHS and Education appropriations bill would have provided $72 million for states that stand to lose money for the 2004-05 school year because of failing child poverty rates. The Education Department changed its policy distributing Title I funds the year, using child poverty counts on an annual, rather than a biennial basis. The House measure did not contain the provision, and it was dropped in the final bill.

President Bush has just nominated Carlos M. Gutierrez, the CEO of Kellogg's, to be the new Secretary of Commerce.

Gutierrez, assuming confirmation by the Senate, would succeed Don Evans, and would be the first outsider nominated to a cabinet position. So far, all positions have been filled by members inside the administration.

Under the 2005 fiscal year omnibus appropriation that was passed last week, more than one million college students will have their financial aid cut or eliminated.

Appropriators did not renew a provision from the 2004 fiscal year appropriations bill that prevented the U.S. Department of Education from changing they way they calculated student eligibility for Pell Grants. Pell Grants provide up to $4,050 in annual aid to low-income students and are based on family incomes.

The department has been wanting to change the formula used to determine eligibility for federal student aid. The formula is based on how much of a family's income is discretionary and available to pay for college tuition. This is determined by using variables such as state and local taxes. One opponent of the measure, Senator Jon Corzine (D-New Jersey) said the change will result in thousands of students losing their eligibility for the Pell Grants, particularly as many states have lowered taxes on personal income since the last update of tax tables.

Proponents of the change, including Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) believe the change will help reduce a budget deficit for the Pell Grant program. The change, he believes, could free up more money to increase the maximum amount for Pell Grants in future years.

Pell Grants are federal aid but are funded as a discretionary program. The program is run as as entitlement because students who are eligible for aid automatically qualify for assistance. Congress has struggled to fund the program recently due to the rise in college students and more adults returning to higher education due to a tight job market.

On Friday, November 19, the House passed the conference report to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (H.R. 1350/H. Rpt. 108-779) by a vote of 397-3, and the Senate cleared the measure by voice vote later that evening. The President is expected to sign the bill into law.

The IDEA conference report includes the following provisions.

• Monitoring and Enforcement. Aligns IDEA monitoring with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Does not include the Senate monitoring and enforcement provisions. Authorizes the U.S. Secretary of Education to take several actions to help any state that does not meet its state-defined targets, including providing technical assistance.
• Highly Qualified Teachers. Allows states to create a pathway to demonstrate subject matter competency for multi-subject teachers. Clarifies highly qualified requirements for special education teachers.
• Risk Pools. Retains state authority to create risk pools. However, incentives would be provided to those states that would like to create risk pools voluntarily. Paperwork. Authorizes a 15-state paperwork demonstration project.
• Maintenance of Effort. Provides expanded flexibility for local education agencies and states to retain a larger percentage of the federal investment in special education.
• Protection and Advocacy Centers. Does not inoculate states from being sued with services provided through the state-funded protection and advocacy centers. However, provides new opportunities, such as resolution and mediation sessions.
• Referral for Children Under 3. Allows states to retain their own systems for screenings and referrals to the statewide system.
• Funding. Establishes a glide path to reach full funding of the federal share of IDEA by 2011.
• State Activities and Administration. Adjusts caps on state activities and administrative set asides with annual adjustment for inflation.