Ryan’s Record on Issues Important to Colleges
At a campaign rally at a technical college in North Carolina on Sunday, Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, sought to introduce his newly-selected running mate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, to voters as someone whose “career ambition was not to go to Washington.”
Within Washington, though, Mr. Ryan is already a well-known quantity. The seven-term Republican Congressman from Wisconsin has built a reputation as a staunch fiscal conservative and the architect of budget proposals that called for deep cuts to government programs, including funds for higher education.
In March, Mr. Ryan, who has served as chair of the House of Representatives Budget Committee for the past two years, released his party’s budget proposal for the 2013 fiscal year, “The Path to Prosperity: A Blueprint for American Renewal.” The plan succeeds and is similar to a proposal for the current fiscal year that was approved by the House in April 2011, but died in the Senate.
Mr. Ryan’s plan would slash federal spending for nearly all non-defense-related programs, including many of concern to higher education. It would cut spending on programs that support academic research, such as the National Institutes of Health, and would make several changes to the federal student-aid programs. It also calls for a complete spending cut for the National Endowment for the Humanities.