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WASHINGTON WATCH

Generous Budget Faces Obstacles

One area that the budget does not address is security on campus.

Although last year's debate on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act called for increased enforcement and monitoring of campus crime and police by the government, the President has proposed no additional funds.

"Some schools have been not aggressive enough in monitoring [security issues]," says Jane Glickman, a Department of Education (DOE) spokesperson. "But the schools have to collect the data, so there's no money for that."

Although testimony at a 1997 Congressional debate on campus crime revealed an under-funded DOE stretched to its seams with monitoring tasks, Glickman says the department does its job adequately.

"We feel very confident that we've responded to every complaint about possible violations of the campus security act," she says.

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Nixon says it's too early to tell whether Clinton's education proposals will be significantly altered in Congress.

"It's a little hard to tell. The process is just starting up. There seems to be determination on the hill to keep [the] appropriations [process] on time."

One problem: Clinton's discretionary spending for education exceeds by $30 billion the caps placed on spending in last year's Balanced Budget Act.

So Nixon says Congress will have to hash out some sort of compromise.

"The caps on discretionary spending and military spending will be lifted," she predicts.

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