Spending too. I hope they stick to their guns on this.

Doug Lederman of Inside Higher Ed reported.

Block That Regulation!

Take your higher education regulations and shove them, Obama administration.

Republicans in the House of Representatives didn’t use exactly those words in the 2016 spending bill for the Department of Education they released Tuesday, but the message they delivered couldn’t have been much clearer.

The bill drafted by Republican leaders of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees spending for education, health and labor programs would bar the Education Department from using any of its appropriated funds to carry out existing regulations related to “gainful employment” for graduates of vocational programs, state authorization, teacher preparation, and the credit hour, and to implement President Obama’s envisioned system to rate colleges and universities.

Essentially, it would block virtually all efforts by the Obama administration to hold colleges more accountable for how they use federal funds, which Republican lawmakers (and many college officials) have opposed as overreaching, misdirected and unlikely to work. Republicans have opposed most of the initiatives previously, but now that they control both houses of Congress, they are in a better position to actually block some of them — or at least force President Obama to horse-trade for some of them in negotiations over the spending measures.

Administration officials, not surprisingly, characterized the House action as a move to undermine taxpayer protections, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan — as he did last week in announcing new avenues to debt relief for student borrowers — cranked up his anti-for-profit-college rhetoric in blasting the House bill’s blockade of gainful employment rules.