Contributed by Organizations or Campuses; Articles, Papers, and Reports; Policy and Law; and Policy and Law: Federal

As U.S. accreditation advisory panel — with Congress watching — seeks to show kinder, gentler side, some members take aggressive tack on regional agencies.

"Two weeks ago, we described a report from the National Research Council on the challenges of balancing an open academic research environment with the risks that the fruits of the research could be adopted by terrorists. One of the report's recommendations was the formation of a standing committee comprised of academics and members of the national security agencies. It turns out that the FBI had already heeded similar advice—back in 2005."

The House of Representatives approved legislation Wednesday that would slash payments to lenders and use the savings to cut interest rates and increase grant funds for students. Although debate over the budget reconciliation measure devolved into partisan nastiness that evoked the worst of the British Parliament, in the end 47 Republicans joined 226 Democrats to vote for the bill. The 273-149 tally, though, fell short of the margin needed to override President Bush’s threatened veto.