WAYS & MEANS.

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Author: Burd, Stephen

By a vote of 122 to 109, Mr. Boehner defeated the acting majority leader, Rep. Roy D. Blunt, of Missouri, to replace Rep. Tom DeLay, of Texas, who was indicted on a conspiracy charge in September.

As part of his campaign for the leadership post, Mr. Boehner, who has been the top policy maker on higher-education issues in the House, promised a fresh start for a party that has been racked by lobbying scandals.

Mr. Boehner has vowed to reform earmarking, a practice in which lawmakers provide noncompetitive grants to specific constituents, including colleges.

He has come under criticism, however, for his links to lobbyists, including those representing for-profit higher-education corporations and those for student-loan companies like Sallie Mae.

As chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, he has shepherded through Congress student-aid legislation that would affect the companies' bottom lines.

Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon, a California Republican, appears to be the top candidate to replace Mr. Boehner as leader of the education committee.

Legislation to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, the law governing most federal student-aid programs, is pending before that panel.

Jane Oates, a senior education adviser to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, for the past eight years, is leaving her post in March to advise New Jersey's new governor, Jon S. Corzine, on higher-education issues.

Bill Lucia, a top Republican aide on the Senate Budget Committee, is leaving Congress this month after three years to become the Educational Testing Service's senior assessment-policy liaison to the State of California.

"The loss of two seasoned staffers who have history, knowledge, and heart is a big blow," says Becky Timmons, director of government relations at the American Council on Education. "The result is a significant legislative brain drain for higher education in Congress."

As an aide to Senator Kennedy, Ms. Oates has championed efforts to expand federal need-based aid to financially needy students. She has also fought efforts by some lawmakers to roll back regulations that for-profit institutions must follow to participate in the student-aid programs.

On the Senate Budget Committee, Mr. Lucia played a key role this year in eliminating a $4-billion deficit in the budget of the Pell Grant program.

To try to prevent future shortfalls, he has also pushed for changes in the way Congress sets the maximum Pell Grant.

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By Stephen Burd