Summary profile of legislator

Senator Snowe is the senior United States Senator from Maine. She is a leading moderate within the Republican Party. She is well known for her capacity to influence close votes and to end filibusters. Her entry into the politics began with her winning a seat on the Board of Voter Registration she later worked for US Senator and later US Secretary of Defense William Cohen (Snowe, 2008). Upon the death of her husband she ran for and won the Auburn based seat in the House of Representatives in Maine. She has been reelected several times and in 1976 she was elected to the Main Senate and in the same year she was a delegate of both the national and state Republican conventions (Calabresi and Bacon, 2006).

She is a liberal on certain issues such as abortion and gay rights. She also supports the war on drugs, capital punishment and the Cuban embargo (Broeder, 1997). In foreign affairs, Snowe has supported the involvement of President Clinton in Kosovo and President Bush in Iraq and Afghanistan.  She also supports reduction in taxes to serve as an economic stimulus. In other fiscal matters she opposes the free trade agreements and was the only Republican to vote in favor of the Tax Fairness and Economic Growth Act (Snowe, 2008). She is also strongly supportive of environmental protections. Some of her top legislation priorities include prescription drug coverage, child care funding, student loans and the growth of small businesses (snowe.senate.gov, 2010).

Senator Snowe is a member of Republicans for Environmental Protection, Republican Majority for Choice, The Wish List, and Republican Main Street Partnership (snowe.senate.gov, 2010 White House Project, 2006). She has supported the Obama Administration by backing him on such issues as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Troubled Asset Relief Program. She has also pledged to work on the issues of energy and health care reform in a bipartisan manner though she opposed the Presidents budget resolution (snowe.senate.gov, 2010).

The Senator was among fourteen other Senators (Gang of 14) who helped to defuse a confrontation between Senate Republicans and and Senate Democrats. The Democrats were filibustering judicial nominees and the Republicans wanted to eliminate filibusters on the nominees by using the nuclear option (Burnet, 2006). The Gang of 14 helped to bring about a compromise in which further filibusters were precluded and the nuclear option was implemented for the remaining period of the 109th Congress. Using its power Democrats filibustered a judicial nominee by President Bush and other nominees received simple majority votes from the full Senate (Burnet, 2006).

Senator Snowe has had various committee assignments such as on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committees, Finance Committee, Select Committee on Intelligence. She has served in several subcommittees which include, the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security, the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance and the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Coast Guard and Fisheries where she is a Ranking Member. She is also a Ranking Member of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. In the Committee on Finance she has sat on the Subcommittees on Taxation, IRS Oversight and Long-term Growth ,the Sub-Committee on Health Care and the Sub-Committee on International Trade and Global Competitiveness (snowe.senate.gove2010).

Senator Snowe is not just a major player in issues of national interest, she is also very effective in advocating for her own constituents. She goes back every weekend to Maine to find out what people are thinking about and she later looks at these problems upon returning to Capitol Hill.  The Senator has had various bills passed that have had a direct bearing on her constituents. These include fighting to keep open two military bases that would have been closed and having a bill passed that provided the funding for payment of heating bills of the low-income people in Maine.

Social policy proposal
Higher education is one of the major public priorities and this is acknowledged by the increasing presence of issues relating to higher education during election periods. The business community has been very supportive of legislators and governors in providing revenues for the economic stimulus many state colleges. The issue of access to higher education is one that has generated much public debate over the years especially with regard to affordability. Affordability affects the access to higher education especially for the students who come from financially disadvantaged situations.

College accessibility is an issue affected by various factors some are short-term issues while others are perennial. Amongst the perennial issues, affordability is the foremost of them.  The rise of tuition costs has been reported in every state in America for the last ten years. The last two years may have seen a decrease in the rise but still tuition costs have led to high dropout rates. The rise of tuition over the years has largely outpaced the inflation rate and the median incomes of families. In some cases some universities have taken to admitting out of state students who generally pay up to three times more than in state students. Colleges are doing this so that they can manage financial difficulties that have engulfed them following decreases in state funding to the colleges.

Generally, there is greater awareness amongst members of the public concerning tuition fees and the state operating funds for college education. This is evidenced by the large number of agreements between tuition fee setting authorities and states that are aimed at balancing between the appropriations and tuition revenue streams (AASCU, 2008).  Attempts to improve affordability of higher education have been made by congress in its authorization of states to maintain effort for the operating funds of higher education (National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2009). There have also been calls for greater accountability and transparency with additional outcome reports being made a requirement for most state universities. Universities have largely complied with this requirement. These measures alone however are not sufficient especially with the recent economic crises that the country has been facing.

Many chancellors of universities argue that by freezing the fees required for tuition, as many students have been suggesting, would lead to an increase in student loan (Berkeley, 2009). There has been much debate over whether it is even necessary for many students to go to college. Even with this debate raging, many students still desire to go to college and it has been reported that those with a college degree generally earn about 2million more than those who do not have one (Mac Dowell, 2008).This therefore makes college a worthwhile investment that people can make in their children, themselves and their country. National reports indicate ever-increasing gaps in the affordability, accessibility and accountability of higher education, more so for minority and poor students (MacDowell, 2008).

The reorganization of financial aid programmes is one that has also influenced access to higher education. This is because over the years there has been a shift from financial aid that is need based to merit based financial aid. Many taxpayers have argued that this move has led to wealthy students having their tuition subsidized at the expense of students from modest backgrounds (AASCU, 2008). Following such public outcry, some states have had to reconsider their financial aid to focus on providing financial help to the lower income families and lower middle income families.

With the current economic crisis and increase in unemployment, it is possible that the jobs that were lost with the financial global crisis may not be coming back (Nicholas, 2009). To assist people in building new careers it will be necessary to make college education more accessible. Our economy has changed to a knowledge and technology economy that requires college graduates. Currently there exists a gap in the number of college educated workers the economy needs and those actually graduating. Government reports indicate that an estimated 6million people enroll in community colleges but only half of these finish their programs, both degree and certificate (Nicholas, 2009). The case is the same in state universities. The social policy proposal that the legislator would be asked to support a proposal to increase the accessibility of higher education by making it more affordable in both the state university and community college.

Advocacy strategy
Since most students have had to face the problem of consecutive fee increases, the advocacy strategy will involve reinvesting in higher education by including it as one of the priority issues in state budgets.  A college funding task force will be set up which can engage Senator Snowe and ask for her support in helping to secure funding for students and also to help in halting the yearly fee increase.  This task force will be charged with the duty of collecting data on the budget, information on long-term planning, fee accountability and pipeline funding. The Task Force will engage the Office of the President in seeking additional grants for student fees. The Task Force will also through research seek to identify the different funding challenges and come up with possible strategies to address them.
It has been noted that in trying to manage student fee increases some states are increasing the taxes that the public have to pay. Taxing students and families so that colleges can secure their futures does not seem to be a prudent direction to take. In moving away from taxing students and families, one strategy that could be adopted is to promote investment in education. This will involve partnering with families to work towards a Savings Plan that is based on income. Secondly in investing in education, it would be important to consider exploring matching-fund programs that will ensure student completion and student progress.

One of the funding avenues that could be explored with the help of Senator Snowe is having community organizations, industries and businesses as potential partners. Another role that the Senator could play is in pushing for policies that will make the tuition increases moderate and that will also increase financial aid. This will largely involve pushing for minimized funding cuts on student aid grants. Need-based programs also need to be fully funded and this can be achieved through partnership models. Another possible strategy is to support an increase in the Tuition Assistance Program (TAG).

The Senator will be contacted through her website and through her office in Capitol Hill with the aim of requesting her to drum up support for the strategies mentioned above. Knowing her history in getting the job done, it is believed that she will be supportive of the strategies.

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